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RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS 
IN EDUCATION 

EDITED BY ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY 



DIVISION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

UNDER THE EDITORIAL DIRECTION 

OF ALEXANDER INGLIS 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



AN INTRODUCTION TO 
CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



BY 



CHARLES W. WADDLE, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
SOUTHERN BRANCH UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 



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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 



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COPYRIGHT, I918, BY CHARLES W. WADDSL® 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 






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CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS 

PRINTED IN 1 THE U.S. A 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

The child-study movement of two decades ago rendered 
perhaps its most important service in turning the attention 
of students of education to the study of children, rather 
than of theories about children. Many studies were made 
and much child-study literature was accumulated. Some 
of these studies were carefully made and are still of value, 
though much of what was then done is not now regarded as 
of fundamental importance. In place of this older child- 
study movement there has since arisen a newer child or 
genetic psychology, developed along better scientific lines 
and better directed. It has based its work not only on the 
study of children themselves, but also on biology, heredity, 
experimental pedagogy, and the newer studies of behavior 
as well. This more recent work has made the earlier text- 
books, written from the point of view of the old child study 
and a limited psychology, out of date. It is an introduction 
to this newer point of view which has been attempted in the 
present volume. 

No attempt has been made by the author to write a com- 
plete treatise on child psychology, as the subject is still 
developing so rapidly that the time for this is not yet ripe. 
He has, however, presented a treatise covering the more 
important aspects of the new subject, and has selected for 
presentation those phases which are most fundamental to 
teacher and parent. The best that the child-study move- 
ment contributed has been organized and presented, the 
status of our present knowledge as to child psychology has 
been set forth, and then, by citations to a series of carefully 
selected bibliographies, he has put the reader in touch with 



vi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

the best literature on each phase of the subject here pre- 
sented. Because of these, and the method of presentation 
followed, the book has large teaching value, and also will be 
valuable to the reader interested in an intelligible key to 
the mass of literature relating to the intellectual develop- 
ment of children which the last quarter of a century has seen 
accumulated. 

The point of view is the modern biological. The first 
chapter is a historical statement as to the scientific study 
of children, and serves to set off the present-day work in 
proper perspective. The second chapter describes the 
methods of studying children. The third gives a good simple 
treatment of child life, from the biological point of view, 
and puts the subject in proper biological perspective. This 
is followed by a chapter dealing with human behavior and 
the instincts, in which the use of the term "instincts" is 
carefully restricted within scientific limits, and the usual 
loose thinking on the matter of instincts avoided. Play, 
language, and drawing are then selected for treatment as 
representing three typical child activities with instinctive 
bases, and as illustrating the mental development of the 
child. The knowledge we have as to genetic development 
along these three lines, and the teaching of these three 
subjects, follows. The author then takes up the questions 
of heredity and environment as showing themselves in the 
moral nature of children and in juvenile delinquency, — 
heredity, environment, and the moral nature of children 
being the central subjects toward which the whole book has 
been leading. The general facts and principles of mental 
development, and some of the established laws for this, fol- 
lowed by a consideration of individual mental capacities, 
closes the treatment. 

The present volume is the outgrowth of a number of years 
of experience in teaching the fundamentals of child psychol- 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION vii 

ogy, on the part of the author, to students in two of our 
larger State normal schools, and the organization, treat- 
ment, questions, and bibliographies which this volume 
contains are all the resultant of classroom experience. The 
treatment is intended to open up to the student and reader 
this new field, to select from the wealth of literature relat- 
ing to child development that which is best and most perti- 
nent, and, where our present knowledge warrants so doing, 
to make definite pedagogical applications. It lays a thorough 
foundation for the intelligent reading of books on educa- 
tion, or for courses on educational theory and educational 
psychology. Presenting as it does the best organization and 
treatment so far effected on a number of the more important 
phases of this rapidly developing field, this volume should 
prove very useful to teachers of child psychology, applied 
psychology, or genetic psychology in normal schools and 
colleges, and of deep interest to thoughtful teachers and 
parents. 

Ellwood P. Cubberley. 



PREFACE 

This book is intended primarily to serve as an introduc- 
tion to the study of child psychology in normal school, 
college, and university classes, but the topics have been so 
chosen and so treated that parents, teachers, and social 
workers should find it useful. The essential content of every 
chapter has been the direct outgrowth of the author's effort 
to cull from the vast literature of child psychology, and to 
organize for use in his own classes, such knowledge as is of 
first importance. 

Satisfactory treatment of the entire field is no longer 
possible in a single volume. The author has, therefore, 
chosen the plan of a somewhat intensive treatment of a few 
closely related and vitally important topics which, experi- 
ence has proved, give proper perspective and leave lasting 
interest. 

The scope of the book makes it necessary to presuppose 
some knowledge of general psychology and of child hygiene 
and some familiarity with the principles and point of view 
of modern biology. Those who have such a foundation are 
at a distinct advantage, but the lack of it should not prove 
an insuperable difficulty. 

Upon the topics treated there is little room for finality 
and none for dogmatism. Our aim is to stimulate the 
reader to think about, to study, and to observe real children 
intelligently, sympathetically, and scientifically. If we can 
to any degree inspire caution, scientific reserve, open- 
mindedness, and a passion for facts ; if we can open the eyes 
of the student to more careful observation; if we can to 
some extent prevent hasty and unwarranted inferences and 



x PREFACE 

consequent misjudgment and mistaken treatment of chil- 
dren, — we shall have rendered a much-needed service. 

In a field in which such a variety of opinion still prevails, 
we cannot hope to please all readers either with our choice 
of topics or our method of treatment. We have made an 
honest and earnest endeavor to present, as impartially and 
as accurately as possible, the best-established facts and prin- 
ciples of the new and growing science of childhood in the 
fields we have treated. 

The scope of the book makes impossible that richness of 
illustration which the author uses in his own teaching. 
Amplification and illustration by the teacher and further 
reading by the student should make clear and add interest 
to the points of the text and suggest their application to 
education and child training. Many of our chapters are 
intended only to open the topics to further reading and 
study. For this reason we have appended to each chapter 
a bibliography carefully selected from the best of the older 
and the best of the new literature of the subject. These 
bibliographies suggest the sources to which we are indebted 
and the materials which students should use for further 
reading. The purposes to be served by them have restricted 
us almost wholly to references in English, to those of real 
and relatively lasting value, and to such as are likely to be 
available in the libraries of normal schools and colleges. 

The obligations of the author are greatest to those whose 
names appear oftenest in the bibliographies and on the 
pages of the text, where acknowledgment of indebtedness is 
made. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the hundreds 
of young people who by their response, in his classes, to 
what is here presented have rendered the author a very 
great service. He is under special obligation to his associate 
Mr. William T. Root, whose assistance, first in the formula- 
tion of the outline of the work and later in criticism of the 



PREFACE xi 

manuscript, has been invaluable. Valuable criticisms of 
chapters xi and xn, by his associate Dr. S. Carolyn Fisher, 
are gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks are due, also, 
to his former pupil, Miss Grace Brainard, for the prepara- 
tion of a number of the drawings that appear in the book 
and to the authors and publishers who have kindly con- 
sented to allow the reproduction of cuts and charts from 
their publications. 

Charles W. Waddle. 
Los Angeles, Cal. 
March, 1918. 




CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I. Historical Background of the Scien- 
tific Study of Children .... 1 

A new estimate of the value of child life — 'Indifference of 
former ages — Modern change of attitude — The history of the 
child — Infanticide — Cannibalism — Human sacrifice — Muti- 
lation and abuse — Chattel slavery — Industrial slavery — • The 
school and the child — The history of scientific study of children 

— Recorded observations — Societies — Proceedings — ■ The 
movement abroad — Child welfare — Recent movements — Re- 
search laboratories. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 

CHAPTER n. Methods of Scientific Study of 

Children 30 

The value and importance of scientific method — The methods 
most frequently used — Biographical — Direct question — Clini- 
cal — Questionnaire — Statistical — Statistical terms — Parallel 
groups — Intelligence tests — ■ Interpretation of results. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 

CHAPTER in. Biological Perspective .... 51 

Application of the evolutionary principle to the study of chilcJ 
life — The theory of descent — Evidences — Darwin's contribu- 
tion — The cell theory — Genetics — Fertilization — Mitosis — 
Rise of parts and organs — The physical recapitulation theory— > 
Prenatal influences. 

Questions and topics. 

£HAPTER IV. Heredity 71 

Racial and individual heritage — Definition — Inevitableness 

— Theories of variation and heredity — Continuity of germ 
plasm — Germinal selection — Mendelism — Mutation — Gal- 
ton's laws — ■ Inheritance of acquired characters — Heredity and 
environment — ■ Scientific studies of heredity — Social heredity. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 



xiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V. Non-Learned Human Behaviob 

Problems of human behavior — Chemo-physical basis of be- 
havior — Structural basis of behavior — Classes of human be- 
havior — Nature of instinct — The stimuli which arouse in- 
stincts — Characteristics of human instincts — Complexity of 
human activities — Emotion and instinct — Classification of in- 
stincts — General pedagogical bearing of non-learned behavior — * 
Typical instincts important in education. 

Questions and topics — • Bibliography. 

CHAPTER VI. The Play of Children .... 

Play and work — Theories of play — ■ The superfluous energy 
theory of Schiller-Spencer — The preparatory theory of Groos — ■ 
The recapitulatory theory of Hall — The relaxation theory of 
Patrick — What children play — The age factor — The sex fac- 
tor — ■ Racial factors — The values of play. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 

CHAPTER VII. The Linguistic Development of 

Children 153 

Definition of language — Theories of the origin of speech — 
Ontogenesis of speech — Heredity and speech — Linguistic 
stages — First steps in learning — ■ Secret languages — Slang — 
Vocabularies — Methods of study — Use of parts of speech — ■ 
Definitions by children — ■ Use of the sentence — Linguistic activ- 
ity of a single day — Speech and intelligence — Word tests — 
Considerations in judging intelligence — Summary. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 



CHAPTER Vni. Children's Drawings . . . . . 185 

Instinctive basis of artistic expression — Racial origins — 
Studies of children's drawings — Genetic stages in drawing ca- 
pacity — ■ What children draw — Characteristics of children's 
drawings — Individual and sex differences — Correlations — 
Values of drawing — Summary. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 

CHAPTER IX. The Moral Nature of Children . . 209 

The point of view of child morality — Social nature of moral- 
, ity — Stages of moral development — Instinctive basis of mo 



CONTENTS xv 

rality and immorality — Ownership — Curiosity — Truancy — 
Lies — Obstinacy — Teasing and Bullying — Imitation — Sum- 
mary. 
Questions and topics. 



CHAPTER X. Juvenile Delinquency .... 

Definition — Causes — Heredity — Instinct and crime — 
Feeble-mindedness and crime — Significance of feeble-minded- 
ness — Other hereditary causes — Environmental causes — • The 
gang — Physical defects and delinquency — The age of the delin- 
quent — The nature of juvenile delinquency — The typical de- 
linquent — Remedies for delinquency — Summary. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 

CHAPTER XI. General Mental Development . . 255 

I. General Facts and Principles 

The problems — The nature of mind — The origin of mind — ■ 
When does consciousness begin? — The nature of consciousness 
in the newborn — ■ Periods of development — Laws of develop- 
ment — Some general principles — Summary. 

Questions and topics. 

CHAPTER XII. General Mental Development . . 279 

II. Particular Capacities 

Sense-perception and apperception — Attention — Association 
— Memory — Imagination — Evolution of the feelings and 
emotions — Reasoning — Conclusion — Summary. 

Questions and topics — Bibliography. 

SUGGESTIONS 303 

GLOSSARY 305 

INDEX OF SUBJECTS 309 

INDEX OF NAMES 315 



FIGURES IN THE TEXT 

; ; 1. Ovum and spermatozoon 59 

2. The parent cell 61 

3. Cell division 62 

4. Heredity, environment, and training 72 

5. Illustrating the continuity of germ plasm 74 

6. Illustrating Mendel's law 77 

7. Interest in various games 135 

8. Running and chance games 142 

9. Rivalry and cooperation in play 143 

10. The pictorial evolution of man 199 

11. Relation of age and crime c . 243 

12. Prevalence of good conduct at different ages .... 244 

TABLES 

I. Average vocabularies at different ages 166 

II. Parts of speech in child vocabularies 167 

III. Estimates of parts of speech in the dictionary .... 168 

IV. Parts of speech as actually used 169 

V. Linguistic activity for a single day 174 

VI. Age of beginning to talk . . 175 

VII. Vocabulary test — imbeciles 176 

VIII. Intelligence tests of juvenile delinquents • • • . 234 



AN INTRODUCTION TO 
CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

CHAPTER I 

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY 

OF CHILDREN 

A new estimate of the value of child life. Any sketch of 
the brief history of the movement for the scientific study 
of children is incomplete and inadequate that is not drawn 
upon a background of preceding social, industrial, and edu- 
cational history. We cannot know whether the scientific 
study of child life has furthered humanitarian, scientific, 
and educational ends until we know the attitude and prac- 
tices of previous epochs in regard to children. If the move- 
ment has accomplished anything, or if it holds any promise 
for the future, this can be made clear only when we know 
something of the facts in the case. It is not our purpose 
here to write either a culture history of the child or a com- 
plete sketch of scientific child study, but we do wish, in 
this introductory chapter, to point out the necessity of 
both lines of study for those who desire to have a true 
conception of the significance of the movement to which 
it is the purpose of this book to introduce the student. 
Holding, as we do, that the evolutionary and genetic point 
of attack is as essential in this field as it is in botany, zool- 
ogy, physiology, or biology, as well as in such sciences as 
anthropology, sociology, and history, the few facts we have 
space to present are brought forward to give something of 
a perspective in the new and rapidly growing science of the 
child. 



£ CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

The task of discovering the exact status of childhood in 
earlier ages and under different forms of civilization is hy 
no means an easy one, and has as yet been undertaken in 
only a partial and a fragmentary way. The history of 
child life has been strangely neglected by all the historian! 
of human life. One might almost infer that there were no 
children or that children had no recognized place in human 
society until recently, for all that most of the history and 
literature of the past centuries tell us of them. This fact 
itself is most significant, especially when we contrast with 
it the situation to-day. In the last fifty years the literature 
about children has multiplied tremendously and at an in- 
creasing rate, until to-day no one person can hope to be 
familiar with more than some few phases of it. It is per- 
haps not too much to say that more has been written about 
children and more study made of them in the past fifty 
years than in all the history of the world before that time. 
A pamphlet of twenty-five pages or so is now required 
merely to list the writings of a single year. Such a sudden 
and unprecedented rise of interest and change of attitude 
deserve some explanation. It is our hope that this chapter 
and others in this book will shed some light on the situa- 
tion. One thing is certain. The eyes of the world are 
turned upon childhood as never before in all history. 

Among the few attempts that have been made to gather 
together such knowledge as can be had from scattered 
sources, as to the attitude toward children in previous ages, 
the most notable ones available to English readers are those 
of Chamberlain (5), Kidd (20), and Payne (25), * to whom 
the reader must be referred for much that can here only 
be hinted at. The contributions of Dr. Ploss, in Das Kleine 
Kind, etc., are as yet unavailable in English. The signifi- 

1 These irambers here, and throughout the book, refer to the Bumbered 
bibliographies found at the close of each chapter. 






HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 3 

cance of these anthropological studies lies chiefly in the 
fact that in a very true sense the history of the attitude of 
humanity toward its own offspring is the history of the rise 
of altruism, humanitarianism, morality, justice, order, and 
of civilization itself in its best sense. The rapidity with 
which civilization and humanitarianism advance in the 
future will without doubt be very definitely conditioned 
by the degree to which we recognize the necessity, profiting 
by the mistakes of the past, of assuming thoughtful, rever- 
ent, and right attitudes toward the greatest asset of any 
civilization — its children. 

More than two thousand years ago the great Hebrew 
prophet Isaiah declared that in a day when the golden age 
of prophecy shall arrive " a little child shall lead them. ,, 
Nearly two thousand years ago the Great Teacher pro- 
claimed to his disciples, after having " called to him a little 
child and set him in the midst of them," that " of such is 
the kingdom of heaven." In spite of the voice of these and 
other seers and prophets the united voice of many such in 
our own day finds difficulty in convincing men generally 
that the " greatest in the kingdom of anthropology is 
assuredly that little child " (5, p. 2). Few people as yet 
appear to be convinced, with Hall, that " childhood is the 
paradise of the race from which adult life is a fall "; or that, 
as Brinton says (5, p. 2), " the child, the infant in fact, 
alone possesses in their fullness, ' the chief distinctive char- 
acters of humanity. The highest human types, as repre- 
sented in men of genius, present a striking approximation 
to the child-type. In man, from about the third year 
onward, further growth is to some extent growth in degen- 
eration and senility.' Hence the true tendency of the pro- 
gressive evolution of the race is to become child-like, to 
become feminine." 

This widely accepted view of anthropologists that the 



4 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

child and the woman are better, more adequate represen- 
tatives of all that is best in the race, which Havelock Ellis 
has elaborated in his Man and Woman, and which has 
permeated the writings of G. Stanley Hall, should direct 
our attention toward childhood. May it not be that woman 
stands more surely for the best things in life because, far 
more than man, she follows the lead of the child, under- 
stands childhood better, sympathizes more with it, and 
appreciates it more truly. If this be true we must agree 
with Chamberlain (5, p. 5) that " The consideration of 
*The Child in Folk-Thought,' — • what tribe upon tribe, 
age after age, has thought about, ascribed to, dreamt of, 
learned from, taught to, the child, the parent-lore of the 
human race, in its development through savagery and bar- 
barism to civilization and culture, — can bring to the har- 
vest of pedagogy many a golden sheaf.'* This kind of 
" child study " cannot and does not pretend to work by 
the same methods or attain to the same kind of results as 
the scientific study of the laboratory. " Its laboratory of 
research has been the whole wide world, the experimenters 
and recorders the primitive peoples of all races and all cen- 
turies, — fathers and mothers whom the wonderland of 
parenthood encompassed and entranced; the subjects, the 
children of all the generations of mankind " (5, p. 5). Such 
study is, however, no less important and valuable in its 
place than the most careful scientific investigations which 
the most expert scientist can make. Indeed it is just the 
kind of study the scientist needs to humanize his efforts 
and to keep his sympathies alive. 

It is no small service that has been rendered us, then, 
by those who, like Chamberlain, have attempted " to ex- 
hibit what the world owes to childhood and the mother- 
hood and the fatherhood which it occasions, to indicate the 
position of the child in the march of civilization among the 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 6 

various races of men, and to estimate the influence which 
the child idea and its accompaniments have had upon soci- 
ology, mythology, religion, language" (5, p. 6). The mag- 
nitude of our indebtedness to childhood in all these respects 
is most inadequately appreciated. The further one goes into 
the study of this debt the more one must be impressed 
with the fact that, of all the studies which the student 
may undertake, the study of childhood is the most univer- 
sally useful and significant. 

All who have any adequate knowledge of the history of 
civilization in other respects will be prepared for the dis- 
covery that the development of a high regard for childhood 
has been exceedingly slow. Even the very emotions — ■ 
tenderness, sympathy, humanity — first aroused by the 
helplessness of infancy, have often signally failed to pro- 
tect the lives of infants and to safeguard childhood from 
misery, abuse, and the grossest exploitation. " The march 
of civilization " is not necessarily synonymous with social 
progress. Humanitarianism has not always advanced hand 
in hand with the progress of philosophy or religion. The 
history of human life is full of paradoxes. The snail's pace 
at which the race has moved toward humanitarianism is 
indicated by Payne's estimate (25, p. 6) that the race is 
perhaps two hundred and forty thousand years old, civil- 
ized man a few hundred years, and a humanitarianism large 
enough to have any real concern in any organized fashion 
for the protection of children scarcely fifty years old. The 
fact that organizations in great number, laws, penalties, and 
constant vigilance are still everywhere needed to secure for 
children their inherent rights is evidence enough that we 
have still a long way to go before we reach the golden age. 
Humanitarians there have been in almost every age, but 
the humanitarianism of Jesus, the Jewish prophets, Con- 
fucius, Plato, Aristotle, Gautama, and many lesser lights 



6 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

since their day is only now beginning to influence our atti- 
tude of indifference and inhumanity to children after the 
lapse of centuries. 

The child in history. The following facts, selected from 
Payne (25), who has taken great care to examine and bring 
together a vast amount of anthropological literature, are 
introduced in the hope that the revolting picture they pre- 
sent may serve to help those who read them to appreciate 
the position of childhood in earlier ages, and perhaps to 
enlist them more unreservedly in the cause of neglected 
and abused childhood in our own day. 

Infanticide has been more or less prevalent in every age 
and under all stages of civilization. So far as can be learned 
the underlying causes have usually been social and eco- 
nomic, though others often appear on the surface. In many 
tribes the definite limitation of offspring reared to maturity 
is enforced by laws. The Papuans of British New Guinea 
are said not to desire children. Regarding them as a nui- 
sance and seeing for them no certain future, they find many 
ways of getting rid of most of their children. Among others 
the custom of burying children alive when parents or per- 
sons of importance die, that the child may wait on his elders 
in the other world, is widespread (p. 26). A Central Aus- 
tralian tribe immediately kills twins " as something which 
is unnatural "; a Northern tribe "as something uncanny " 
(p. 32). Among Western Victorian tribes, because of the 
scarcity of food and the nomadic habits of the tribe, "it is 
lawful and customary to destroy the weaker twin child, 
irrespective of sex." In parts of the continent the mother 
of twins is often sacrificed with them. Australian aborigi- 
nes, like the ancient Spartans, customarily destroy all mal- 
formed infants (p. 34). 

Curious superstitions grow to be customs justifying in- 
fant destruction. From various tribes the following are 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 7 

typical: all infants are to be destroyed whose birth causes 
the death of the mother; those born with teeth already cut; 
those born in stormy weather or on unlucky days; those 
who sneeze at or shortly after birth; those born in any way 
considered unusual; those who cry at or soon after birth and 
the like (p. 35). In the great majority of cases it has been 
the female infant that has suffered oftenest. " In South 
America it was the custom for the women to bury alive the 
majority of their female children, and they never brought 
up more than one boy and one girl " (p. 36). Female chil- 
dren in India have for ages been doomed to a most unwel- 
come reception. Over them the father had power of life and 
death. The sad fate of the child-widows of India is well 
known. During the nineteenth century the British Gov- 
ernment received many protests against its efforts to stop 
the practice of killing daughters, which had been in vogue 
for forty-nine hundred years. Conditions were not dis- 
similar in ancient China, and a recent investigation in forty 
villages of a certain province indicates that a short time ago 
an average of forty per cent of all the girl babies were ex- 
posed or otherwise destroyed (p. 67). The Homeric Greeks 
left it entirely to the father to decide whether a child was 
worth rearing. He had the power to destroy it if he so de- 
sired. In Athens infanticide was an accepted practice (p. 
191). They might rear the first child; a second was usually 
condemned to die (p. 195). The Athenian rule is said to 
have been " The son is brought up even if one is poor; the 
daughter is exposed, even if one is rich " (p. 198). During 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centimes infanticide was 
very common in France. 

Cannibalism is closely associated with infanticide in many 
cases, in fact it is one of the causes in times of economic 
stress or famine. It is common among such primitive peo- 
ples as the Papuans. In one village a British Governor 



8 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

found no girls, since all had been killed and eaten in a re- 
cent raid (pp. 26, 27). In parts of New South Wales " The 
first born of every lubra was eaten by the tribe as a part 
of the religious ceremony " (p. 147). " Bathing in blood, 
especially the blood of children, in Northern India was 
regarded as a powerful remedy for disease*' (p. 148). In 
times of famine cannabalism often breaks out when not 
prevalent at other times. Such an outbreak occurred in 
Japan not over one hundred years ago. At such times chil- 
dren, especially female children, were the first to suffer. 

Human sacrifice seems to have been only a little less 
widespread. At the coronation of their princes the Peru- 
vians sacrificed two hundred children (p. 146). In India 
human sacrifices were common in some sections till 1800. 
The sacrifice of children to the sacred Ganges continued 
up to the beginning of the present century. The ancient 
Aryans " practiced human sacrifice and they retained after 
birth only those children that they could conveniently rear, 
or those male children who were regarded as necessary for 
the increase of the fighting forces of the tribe " (p. 122). In 
Japan the god of wild animals was statedly placated by 
the sacrifice of a girl. Human sacrifice unquestionably 
prevailed among the early Hebrews, as it did among their 
neighbors. In the later substitution of animals they did not 
stand alone. Abraham's call to sacrifice his only son called 
forth sorrow, but evidently no surprise. Jephthah sacri- 
ficed his daughter to fulfill a vow. Kings Ahaz and Manasseh 
(sixth and seventh centuries b.c.) sacrificed sons and es- 
tablished the worship of Moloch, the chief feature of which 
was the sacrifice of children. The great prophets had con- 
stant difficulty to prevent the recurrence of such practices. 
Further occasions for human sacrifice can only be enu- 
merated. Among them are sacrifices to secure good crops, 
successful business journeys, to render a city impregnable, 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 9 

to keep evil spirits away, to prevent the plague, and the 
like. In the custom remaining till to-day of breaking a 
bottle of champagne over the bow of the newly launched 
vessel there survives the custom which once called for the 
death of a human victim to insure successful launching. 
Our own foundation ceremonies and corner-stone layings 
remind those who know the anthropological history of 
India, New Zealand, China, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Den- 
mark, and perhaps other countries, of the custom of wall- 
ing in a living child to make the building more secure for 
those who were to use it. Payne thinks that the establish- 
ment of rituals demanding sacrifice of children to propiti- 
ate the gods, and incidentally to reduce economic burdens, 
may have been a device of man to appease the opposi- 
tion of woman by a religious appeal. Certain it is that the 
maternal instinct often rebelled against the cruel destruc- 
tiveness of man. 

Mutilation and abuse of children has been all too common 
in every age. The Roman father had the power to sell, 
mutilate, or kill his children, even after they reached ma- 
turity. There seems little doubt that many children ex- 
posed, according to the custom of the day in Greece and 
Rome, were as foundlings horribly mutilated so that their 
condition might be a means of securing alms for tbeir mas- 
ters as beggars in the streets. This practice was common 
in France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and 
was an important cause of the arousal of public-spirited 
citizens to undertake child-protective work. Unfortunately 
the mountebank is still with us when he dares to be. 

Lawful punishments of children were excessively severe. 
The code of Hammurabi (2250 B.C.) prescribes very severe 
punishment for disrespect or repudiation of a parent, but 
the parent, especially the father, had almost free rein with 
the child. The Mosaic law was not less severe. " He that 



10 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to 
death," to quote a single example. In old feudal days in 
Japan, prior to the eighteenth century, " children were 
punished for the crime of their parents " even to the extent 
of death for male and slavery for female children. 

Slavery of children is an ancient institution. The Roman 
father long had the right to sell his child into slavery. The 
Mosaic law made provisions concerning the same right 
In the European States that succeeded the Western Roman 
Empire, abandoned children became the slaves of those who 
reared them (p. 289). Among the Gauls there was a time 
when children were sold into slavery by their families. This 
was true also in the British Islands. Many Greek and 
Roman foundlings were saved from death only to become 
slaves if not redeemed, as they sometimes were, by their 
parents. As late as 1905, during the famine in Japan, many 
girls were sold by their parents (p. 87). But we need not 
go so far from home. The investigations of the Vice Com- 
mission in Illinois have proved that to-day in our own coun- 
try thousands of young girls are bought and sold in our 
great cities to a worse slavery than the negro ever suf- 
fered. 

But chattel slavery at its best is better than industrial 
slavery at its worst. Every country and every age has its 
social sins to answer for. For industrial abuses the England 
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will have most 
to answer for in this regard. Conditions in industry, begin- 
ning as early as the eleventh century, made children use- 
ful. For protection from infanticide they paid by the worse 
calamity of slavery in mills and factories. Invention of 
machinery, and the consequent demand for cheap labor, 
caused laws to be enacted which made the overseers of 
the poor in effect the slave agents for the mill-owners. 
u Nominally," says Payne, " the children were appren- 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 11 

tices, but actually they were slaves and their treatment was 
most inhuman " (p. 319). As late as 1840 children of ten 
to fifteen years and younger were driven by merciless over- 
seers for ten, twelve, sixteen, even twenty hours a day in 
the lace-mills. Fed the coarsest of food, in ways more dis- 
gusting than those in the boarding-schools described by 
Dickens, they slept, when they had opportunity, often in 
relays, in beds that were constantly occupied. They lived 
and toiled day and night in the din and noise, the filth and 
stench, of the factory that coined their life's blood into gold 
for their exploiters. Sometimes with chains about their 
ankles, to prevent their attempts to escape, they labored 
till epidemics, disease, or premature death brought wel- 
come relief from a slavery that was forbidden by law for 
negro slaves in the colonies. It was even testified, in a hear- 
ing in 1815, that a whole gang of such children were sold 
with the other effects of a bankrupt (p. 324). This and much 
more could be said, but we would not have harassed the 
feelings of the reader with this revolting recital even thus 
far were it not for the fact that the battle for the emanci- 
pation of helpless childhood is not yet wholly won. 

Something of what remains to be done in the interest of 
child welfare may be judged from the following quotation 
from Bonger (3, pp. 319, 320), who quotes it from a Ger- 
man writer: — 

If the reader will imagine a procession of 109,000 children 
marching past him, and will notice attentively child after child 
as it goes by, he will get some idea of the extent of the suffering of 
children with which the National Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children in England has actually had to do during the 
first ten years (1884-94) of its existence. 

The first 25,437 are sufferers from injuries inflicted upon them 
with boots, crockery, pans, shovels, straps, ropes, pokers, fire, 
boiling water, in short with every imaginable instrument that 
came to the hand of the brutal and vindictive parents — covered 



12 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

with wounds and bruises, burned, scalded, and covered with plas- 
ters and bandages. 

Then come 62,887 sufferers from neglect and starvation — cov- 
ered with dirt, eruptions, and sores, trembling, in rags, half-naked, 
pale, weak, faint, feeble, pining, starving, dying — many of them 
borne in the arms of the nurses of the hospitals. 

Then come 713 funeral processions, where the maltreatment 
ended fatally. 

Then come 12,663 little beings, their sufferings displayed to 
turn the lazy and cruel benevolence of the street to those who are 
answerable for their pallor, leanness, and coughs — most of these, 
too, are still in arms, but in the arms of vile drunkards and vaga- 
bonds. 

Then come 4460 pitiable girls, victims of the lust of human 
monsters. 

Then come 3205 little slaves of unsuitable and harmful occupa- 
tions and dangerous performances, untimely births in traveling 
vans, acrobats at fairs, trapeze performers and tight-rope walkers 
in circuses, laboring under too heavy a load, and suffering the 
most diverse outrages. The procession is sixty miles long and 
takes twenty-four hours to pass by. 

Bonger calls attention to the fact that these are cases 
coming to the attention of a single private agency in a sin- 
gle country in the first ten years of the society's existence, 
and reports that the same society in twenty-nine years, 
or up to 1913, had cared for 2,101,130 children, an average 
of about 75,000 a year, the number for the last year being 
159,000. What must be the condition where no such socie- 
ties exist, and what must still be the sum total of child- 
hood's suffering throughout the world in this enlightened 
age? The one hopeful feature of the situation is that there 
are anywhere such societies as this one, and that there is 
an awakening conscience throughout the civilized world. 

There has often been a brighter side of the picture. 
Chamberlain (5), himself a lover of primitive man, as every 
deep student of anthropology is, finds much that is pleas> 
ing in the attitude of the simple savage toward his children. 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 13 

Even Payne, the total effect of whose recital is such as we 
have given thus far, finds the silver lining behind the dark 
clouds of superstition in every age. He admits " among the 
lowest of the tribes an affection for their young, once it has 
been decided that they are to be allowed to live " (25, p. 44). 
Children were better treated by the ancient Egyptians than 
by any other peoples of that early day, due perhaps to 
matriarchal tendencies, to the fact that children were sup- 
posed to be under the protection of certain goddesses, to an 
early belief in a hereafter, and to more favorable economic 
conditions than prevailed generally. The fabled Romu- 
lus, as early as the eighth century B.C., is said to have ini- 
tiated in Rome a legal movement to compel citizens to 
allow all normal children to live until they were three years 
old, and to rear all healthy males and at least one female 
child (25, p. 212). He also required that five neighbors must 
be called in to help decide the child's fitness to live. Strange 
as this may seem to us, it was a great humane movement 
for that day. After the reforms of Augustus and Nerva 
conditions were much improved. Subsidies were even 
granted by the State to poor parents, and it is said that in 
the year 100 a.d., as many as five thousand children, one 
tenth of them girls, were receiving State aid. With the found- 
ing of Christianity began the " ceaseless war they waged in 
behalf of children " (p. 258). Payne is of the opinion that 
the assertion of the Christian Fathers that children had 
souls probably did more to stop the practice of infanticide 
than any other idea (p. 264). He quotes with approval 
the learned Clement of Alexandria to the effect that " Or- 
pheus tamed the tiger by his songs, but the God of the 
Christians, in calling men to their true religion, did more, 
since he tamed and softened the most ferocious of all ani- 
mals — men themselves " (p. 261). 
The school and childhood. The suffering of childhood 



14 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

has not all been at the hands of the home and those of In- 
dustry. The school has contributed its share. One or two 
glimpses at the attitude of earlier days must suffice as a 
basis for contrasts which the reader may easily make for 
himself, or he may read those of Swift (32, chap. 3), from 
whom the following quotations are taken: — 

It is not so very long ago, as history measures time, that a 
Suabian schoolmaster pointed with pride to the results of his 
fifty-one years of teaching. He had given "911,500 canings, 121,- 
000 floggings, 209,000 custodes, 126,000 tips with the ruler, 10,200 
boxes on the ear, and 22,700 tasks by heart." It is also recorded 
to his credit that "he had made 700 boys stand on peas, 6000 to 
wear the fool's cap, and 17,000 hold the rod " (p. 95). 

Evidently these scholarly duties formed an important 
part of the teacher's task. The words which Crabbe puts 
into the mouth of his schoolmaster represent something 
of the same attitude: — 

"Students like horses on the road, 
Must be well lash'd before they take the load; 
They may be willing for a time to run, 
But you must whip them ere the work be done; 
To tell a boy, that if he will improve, 
His friends will praise him, and his parents love, 
Is doing nothing — ■ he has not a doubt 
But they will love him, nay, applaud without; 
Let no fond sire a boy's ambition trust, 
To make him study, let him learn he must " (p. 95). 

Every one is familiar with one or more of the twenty- 
eight schools so vividly described by Dickens. The pic- 
tures may be somewhat overdrawn, but it is not difficult 
for one familiar with the history of the child to believe that 
the incidents depicted were essentially true to the facts. 
They typify an attitude of mind toward children and re- 
veal the conception of the nature of childhood current in 
that day and age. The schoolmaster shared in the belief 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 15 

of these earlier ages that childhood and youth were natu- 
rally bad and in need of total reformation, a conception, it 
is needless to say, which had arisen from philosophical 
theorizing rather than from scientific study of children. 

In spite of what has just been said, it should not be for- 
gotten that the necessity of an understanding of child 
nature was recognized by a few great minds at a much 
earlier period. Even as early as Plato one finds in his Re- 
public a description of those elements of human nature 
for which it is the function of education to provide nurture, 
Plato was one of the first to insist that systematic educa- 
tion cannot be intelligently undertaken by the State or by 
an individual until they know the nature and needs of the 
being to be educated. John Locke's Thoughts on Educa- 
tion, the first educational book which deals primarily with 
the physical, mental, and moral nature of the child, has 
for more than two hundred years been a stimulus to the 
study of children. In Rousseau's Emile we find the first 
strong plea for such study. " I wish," says Rousseau, " that 
some discreet person would give us a treatise on the art of 
observing children — an art which would be of immense 
value to us, but of which our fathers and schoolmasters 
have not as yet learned the very first rudiments." This 
plea, together with his educational dictum, " follow na- 
ture," almost justifies our strong tendency to speak of 
Rousseau as the John the Baptist of the child-study move- 
ment. How shall the teacher follow nature if he does not 
know childhood thoroughly? How shall he know child 
nature without studying it intensively? While Rousseau 
himself came very far from living up to his own ideals, he 
did more than any other one man prior to our own genera- 
tion to stimulate an interest in the study of children. It is 
beyond our purpose to discuss the many similar contribu- 
tions of such men as Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart, and 



16 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

many others whose prophetic utterances and work paved 
the way for the epoch-making researches into child nature 
carried out in our own day. It must suffice to say that the 
latter could hardly have been conceived and carried out 
without the former, for revolutions are seldom wrought in 
a day. 

The study of children. Organized, systematic, scientific 
study of children is a thing of yesterday. The read- 
ing of history, literature, of even the history of educa- 
tion prior to Gomenius, must convince the reader that 
children as such had small place in the thought of the writ- 
ers. Child life has never been held in proper regard. Even 
such attention as was paid to children in earlier times seems 
to have been with the thought of what childhood was to 
be rather than what it was in itself. With adults childhood 
was tolerated because it led to manhood and womanhood. 
The beauty and glory of childhood as such was little under- 
stood or appreciated. 

That educational procedure should be based upon a 
thoroughgoing knowledge of the child to be educated 
should be a pedagogical axiom. Strangely enough, this 
principle is unrecognized by many teachers, is often ignored 
by educational writers, and in earlier ages was unknown 
to those who had most need of it. Many universities 
and colleges and even normal schools in America to-day 
still prepare (?) teachers without giving them specific 
training in the psychology and hygiene of childhood and 
adolescence. How little it was recognized that a knowledge 
of children is a fundamental necessity for the teacher, prior 
to the beginning of the child-study movement, may be 
judged by an examination of the topics which absorbed the 
interest of teachers in their educational meetings. The pro- 
ceedings of our National Education Association show that 
a generation ago discussion rarely centered about problems 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 17 

of child nature, but rather about the relative merits of the 
classical and scientific education, problems of administra- 
tion, curricula, the needs of society, about what was to be 
made of children rather than what children were, how they 
thought, how they differed from adults, what rights they 
had, and how their interests and needs could be supplied. 

Recorded observation. The first consecutive record of 
observed facts of child nature of which we have any infor- 
mation was Tiedemann's Observations on the Development 
of the Minds of Children, published in 1787, unless we ex- 
cept the simple notes made by Pestalozzi concerning his 
son in the year 1775. These were followed by somewhat 
similar studies by Lobisch (1851), Kussmaul (1856), and 
Sigismund (1859). With the publication of Preyer's Mind 
of the Child in 1881, often spoken of "as the model record, " 
a new standard was set for studies of this type and a new 
impetus given to the interest of people generally in the 
psychology and physiology of infancy. In America, during 
the closing decade of the nineteenth century, a number of 
studies of infancy inspired by that of Preyer were made by 
American women, the most notable being Miss Shinn's 
study of her niece, of which she has given us the most popu- 
lar account in her Biography of a Baby (28). There have 
been a number of similar studies recently, and especially 
has there been a tendency to intensively study certain 
aspects of infant development; for example, the study of 
the development of speech, discussed farther on in this 
book. There is room for many similar studies, for there 
are many unsolved problems, as one may learn from exami- 
nation of one of the more recent studies of this type — 
Moto-Sensory Development, by Dearborn. 

The isolated, individual, and more or less sporadic stud- 
ies of infancy of which we have spoken, would never alone 
have developed a science of child life. The real history of 



18 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

" child study," therefore, begins with the organized move- 
ment for the study of great numbers of children by a great 
number of workers. This movement, in the midst of which 
we now are, scarcely more than covers the lifetime of most 
of those who will read this book. Few attempts have as 
yet been made to write a historical sketch of the move- 
ment. The chapters in Gesell (9) and Claparede (6) are 
the most satisfactory brief accounts so far. It is naturally 
difficult to evaluate at its true worth a movement which 
is barely beginning to make history. We here present only 
a brief epitome of the most important events. 

The organized movement for " child study," of which 
G. Stanley Hall is the " Father," was preceded by several 
noteworthy individual studies. In his classic study of The 
Contents of Children's Minds on Entering School, begun in 
1880, Hall followed the example of studies made in Ber- 
lin as early as 1869, when " the new psychology " was just 
beginning to arouse enthusiasm. This investigation, how- 
ever, is a landmark to be remembered as the first piece of 
study of the minds of a group of children ever made in this 
country. The study attracted considerable attention at 
the time, and stimulated such work as that of Russell, 
president of the Worcester Normal School, who in 1885 
began the first systematic effort to collect continuously, 
with the aid of his students, observations of the interests 
and activities of children. This interesting effort was kept 
up all through the years that President Russell remained 
as head of the institution. The material collected during 
some twenty-five years, amounting to several tons of papers, 
was recently donated to Clark University, where use of 
it is to be made under Dr. Hall's direction. These are 
typical early pieces of work. 

Societies. Not until 1893, at the time of the International 
Congress on Education, held during the progress of The 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 19 

World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, was any gen- 
eral enthusiasm aroused for " child study." At that time 
Hall addressed a small company of people on the subject, 
and organized The National Association for the Study of 
Children. A " Department of Child Study " of the National 
Education Association was organized the same year. These 
were rapidly followed by the organization of numerous State 
societies, and many local associations of groups of teacherf 
and parents. 

The first State society, and the most successful one, was 
the Illinois Society for Child Study, organized in 1894, 
largely on the initiative of Professor W. O. Krohn, of the 
University of Illinois. With him were actively associated 
such educational men as Colonel Parker, C. C. Van Liew, 
C. A. McMurry, and others. This society undertook a 
rather ambitious program, including both practical and 
scientific aims. For several years it published quarterly as 
its ofiicial organ the Transactions of the Illinois Society for 
Child Study, in which several original studies of some im- 
portance were reported. It also organized local round 
tables in various cities, and in other ways did much to 
popularize the movement. The society attained the largest 
membership of any of its kind, reporting a total of sixteen 
hundred in 1898, including representatives from most of 
the States, from Canada, England, Scotland, one from 
South Africa, and one from Japan. 

Societies were organized after the same general plan in 
Iowa (1894), in Minnesota (1895), in Ontario (1895) as a 
section of the Educational Association, and in Nebraska, 
Missouri, Indiana, and Kansas (1896). Beginning in 1895, 
child study was conducted as a feature of the work of the 
Department of Public Instruction in New York State. 
None of these societies, however, continued as such for 
more than a few years, but they did give considerable 



/ 



20 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

impetus to the movement for scientific child study, and 
especially to that for child welfare. 

Proceedings. The closing decade of the nineteenth cen- 
tury was the period of great popularity for the new move- 
ment. The nature of the work done during this period, the 
methods employed, and the aims which were dominant 
may best be judged by an examination of the volumes of 
the Child Study Monthly, or those of the Transactions of 
the Illinois Society for Child Study. These and other jour- 
nals of the period are filled with observational, reminis- 
cent, direct-question, and questionnaire studies. Statistical 
treatment of the data presented often tended to give the 
appearance of exactness and finality to reports made upon 
the most intricate problems of child nature by persons ill- 
prepared to undertake such work. The definitely practi- 
cal aims which most students cherished encouraged rather 
than restrained the tendency to hasty generalization. The 
contention of Barnes (1, p. 5) that " child study " was not 
a pure, but rather an applied, science, and the oft-repeated 
statement of many of the State societies that they had no 
desire to have their work considered pseudo-scientific, did 
not wholly succeed in preventing the popular mind from 
so considering it. This fact tended to alienate the more 
scientific students, and the popularity of the movement as 
such waned as rapidly as it had arisen. 

It early became evident that a real science of childhood 
was needed, that such a science could not be built in a day, 
that its methods must be exact, its investigations pains- 
taking, its workers well trained, and its conclusions well 
tested. Fortunately the movement has not had the kind 
of popularity in recent years that it had in the nineties. 
But, however much we may criticize some of the work of 
this early period, we must not fail to recognize the lasting 
contribution we unquestionably owe to those who pioneered 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 21 

in this difficult field in these early years. The child has 
been raised to prominence. Parents, teachers, homes, 
churches, schools, and people generally have been brought 
to a recognition of the value and necessity of a scientific 
study of child life as never before in all history. We are 
now at the threshold of a most hopeful period. More sci- 
entific aims, more refined methods, and more carefully 
trained men and women as investigators of child life domi- 
nate the work of the present. The twentieth century, if it 
shall be in fact as it has been called, " The Century of the 
Child," will be so largely as a result of the impetus given 
to its workers by the early " child-study movement." 

The movement abroad. The child-study movement has 
not been wholly confined to America. A group of British 
teachers, upon their return from the International Con- 
gress on Education at Chicago, founded, in 1894, the Brit- 
ish Child Study Society. Child-Study, formerly The Paidol- 
ogist, is their official publication. Poland has had an active 
Societe polonaise pour l'etude de l'enfant since 1897. Ger- 
many founded at Berlin, in 1899, the Verein fur Kinder- 
psychologique. France has had, since 1900, La Societe 
libre pour l'etude psychologique de l'enfant. Several 
societies with similar aims have existed in Austria-Hun- 
gary since 1903. Individual societies for the study of child 
psychology, child hygiene, and especially for the study of 
experimental pedagogy, in Serbia (1906), Russia (1906), 
Switzerland, and Japan (1890), and several other coun- 
tries, which have no organizations or societies for the fur- 
therance of researches in child life, have done notable work. 
Important contributions have come from Italy, Holland, 
Bulgaria, Roumania, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, 
and the Argentine Republic. The last mentioned had a 
national congress on child welfare in 1913, and in 1915, at 
the celebration of the centenary of her independence, held 



22 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

the First American Congress for the Child at Buenos Aires, 
where addresses were given and conferences held on a wide 
variety of topics. An exposition was also held in conjunc- 
tion with the discussions. It will thus be evident that the 
recognition of the need for a closer study of children, and 
the purpose to make such study, have become world-wide. 
Journals. Beginning for the most part early in the closing 
decade of the nineteenth century, a number of journals 
devoted in whole or in part to the various phases of child 
life have been established. The American Journal of Psy- 
chology (1887), and especially the Pedagogical Seminary 
(1891), both edited by Hall, have contained the results of 
most of the researches conducted by himself and his stu- 
dents, as well as by many others. The Pedagogical Sem- 
inary contains many of the early questionnaire studies, a 
number of which have been the basis for books. These 
journals still perform a very notable service. The Child 
Study Monthly (1895), Barnes's Studies in Education (1895- 
96), the Journal of Adolescence (1900), Paidology (1901), 
and The Transactions of the Illinois Society for Child Study, 
all of which belong to the period of first popular interest, 
have now been discontinued. In their place we have The 
Journal of Psycho- Asthenics (1896); The Training School 
(1904), devoted to the problems of the feeble-minded; The 
Psychological Clinic (1908), devoted primarily to problems 
of exceptional children of all classes; The Journal of Edu- 
cational Psychology (1910), which furthers the same ends, 
and especially those of experimental education; and such 
journals as The Playground (1907) and The Journal of De- 
linquency (1916), which owe their existence to the rapid 
increase of knowledge of and interest in child welfare. It is 
beyond our present aim to name the very many excellent 
periodicals of other countries now devoted to the same 
ends. We can merely say that the quantity and quality 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 23 

of such publications are wholly without parallel in any other 
age or period. 

Beginnings in child-welfare work. In the introduction 
to his Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children (18), Hart 
gives us a chronological epitome of the steps by which in 
the United States we have come to give something like 
adequate attention to the needs of child life. He finds that 
the beginning was made as early as 1660 in the legislation 
in Massachusetts, providing apprenticeship for orphans 
and homeless children, and which enabled many such to 
grow up to be useful citizens in good homes. Sixty-nine 
years later (1729), the first private orphanage, theUrsuline 
Orphanage at New Orleans, was established. Sixty-one 
years more bring us to the first public orphanage estab- 
lished at Charleston, South Carolina (1790). Thirty-four 
years later (1824), was established the New York House 
of Refuge, which became the forerunner of the juvenile 
reformatory institutions now found in almost every State 
of the Union. In 1848 the Massachusetts School for Idi- 
otic and Feeble-minded Youth began the movement for 
the care of these unfortunates now (1914) represented by 
no less than sixty-three similar institutions under public 
and private support in thirty-three States in this country. 
From 1850 to the present so many similar projects have 
been undertaken that space forbids mention of more than 
a few of the most significant ones. Boston established the 
first public playground under direction, in 1868; Salem 
the first boys' club, in 1869; Massachusetts the first sep- 
arate court for children's cases, in 1870; in 1872 the Na- 
tional Conference of Charities and Corrections was organ- 
ized; New York had the first social settlement, in 1887; and 
Illinois the first " juvenile court " law, in 1899. We are 
only now well started on the kind of protective work that 
should logically have been first undertaken. Dr. Hart well 



24 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

shows that as usual the chronological order is quite differ- 
ent from what the logical order should have been. Preven- 
tion, however, is becoming the slogan of many of the newer 
organizations. 

Recent movements. Of the most fruitful and promising 
of recent tendencies a few typical ones may be mentioned. 
Psychological clinics, begun as early as 1899 by Witmer, 
are becoming a feature of the work of public school systems, 
university and normal school departments of psychology, 
institutions for defectives, delinquents, and other special 
classes. The Child Welfare Conference, called by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt in January, 1909, at Washington, has borne 
fruitful results in improved child-labor legislation and in 
other ways. The Child Conference for Research and Wel- 
fare, called by President Hall at Clark University, in July, 
1909, and which effected a permanent organization with 
annual meetings, was the crystallization of the feeling of 
many scientists and practical workers that the time had 
come for greater cooperation, better mutual understand- 
ing, and more concerted effort by workers in every field 
in furtherance of both scientific study of and practical work 
with children. The establishment, in 1910, of the Chil- 
dren's Institute, at Clark University, is a further tangible 
result of this same feeling, and gives us an institution, such 
as exists nowhere else in the world, whose business it is to 
collect, increase, and disseminate scientific knowledge of 
childhood. Its work covers a dozen departments, and it 
purposes, among other things, to compile or outline the 
history of each class of society or institution having to do 
with children, to find in the voluminous literature scien- 
tific knowledge valuable in various types of social work, 
to coordinate the work of scientists and social workers to 
the mutual benefit of each, and to offer courses, confer- 
ences, or lectures for the scientific and practical training 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 25 

of social workers of all classes. The plan of holding child- 
welfare exhibits, begun in New York City in 1910, and 
followed by Chicago in 1911, Kansas City in 1911, Balti- 
more, Atlanta, and numerous other cities, and, in 1915, 
made a feature of the great expositions at San Francisco 
and San Diego, has been a most effective means of dissem- 
inating information concerning present efforts and needs 
in child-welfare work. 

Perhaps most significant among recent events was the 
establishment of the Federal Children's Bureau, in 1912, 
under the Department of Labor at Washington. This came 
after years of effort and repeated failures, and represents 
the awakening of the National consciousness to a recogni- 
tion that children are as worthy of study and of protec- 
tion as are sheep, cattle, horses, or hogs. The bill estab- 
lishing the bureau authorizes investigations and reports 
" upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children 
and child life among all classes of our people " and espe- 
cially designates ten important lines of study. The bureau is 
receiving more generous support than at first, and, in spite 
of the inadequacy of its appropriations, has already made 
several notable investigations and reports on infant mor- 
tality, the birth rate, prenatal care, birth registration, and 
related topics. As a source of information and an agency 
for uniformitizing laws relating to children in the various 
States its service is destined to be one of increasing value. 

Most encouraging signs for the future welfare of chil- 
dren are to be found in the very rapidly increasing in- 
terest of many of our States and cities. Within the past five 
years child-welfare commissions, under various names and 
with somewhat different functions, have been established 
by legislative enactment. Those of Minnesota, Oregon, 
New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas, and Missouri are typical. 
The Russell Sage Foundation is conducting surveys of 



26 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

child-helping institutions in various States and cities. The 
National Child Welfare Exhibit Association, Inc., of New 
York, is furthering an educational campaign in welfare 
work and needs. Many cities are at work reorganizing or 
have reorganized their social agencies for more effective 
work. So rapidly are all these things being done that any- 
thing further we might say would soon be out of date. 

Research laboratories. Our great universities are open- 
ing up promising new lines of service and of research. The 
University of Kansas has for several years maintained a 
professorship in child welfare, which is doing much in the 
interest of all the children of the State. The Bailey and 
Babette Gatzert Foundation for Child Welfare, estab- 
lished in 1910, and in 1915 made a separate department of 
the University of Washington, maintains a psychological 
clinic, assists local welfare organizations throughout the 
State, and conducts research work in child psychology. 
The Research Laboratory of the Buckel Foundation at 
Stanford University (1915) has already been able to make 
valuable contributions to the coming science of intelligence 
testing. Just as this book goes to press there is being estab- 
lished at the University of Iowa what might well be taken 
as a type of institution which all our State universities 
should establish. The Legislature of the State has made 
an annual appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars 
for the establishment of a Child- Welfare Research Station. 
The purposes stated in the bill are " the investigation of 
the best scientific methods of conserving and developing 
the normal child, the dissemination of the information ac- 
quired by such investigation, and the training of students 
for work in that field." As outlined by Dr. Seashore, under 
whose direction the work is being initiated, there will be 
six divisions of research undertaken: (1) heredity and pre- 
natal care; (2) nutrition of the child; (3) preventive medi- 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 27 

cine; (4) social surveys and social policy ; (5) education and 
morals; (6) applied psychology. The plan is to devote the 
facilities of the station to the study of children under school 
age, a period which, except for the few studies of infancy, 
some medical research in hygiene, and the recent work of 
our Children's Bureau is, in large part, practically a terra 
incognita. The launching of such a movement, therefore, 
is fraught with tremendous possibilities for good. In this 
new venture the University of Iowa, which has already 
rendered notable service to the people of the State by pro- 
viding expert vocational guidance in music, plans to extend 
and broaden the field of its practical and patriotic service. 
There are now more than ninety types of organizations 
working for the welfare of children, in one way and another 
(17, vol. 2, pp. 74, 75). The rapid spread of health work 
in public schools and institutions, including medical, den- 
tal, and psychological clinics; the phenomenal spread of the 
playground movement over the country; the development 
and spread of the juvenile-court idea; the radical reorgani- 
zation of work for the feeble-minded, delinquent, crippled, 
blind, and deaf of our public schools; improved legislation 
in the interest of children; and many other reforms bear 
witness to a general awakening of public interest which 
in no small degree has been the direct outgrowth of the 
earlier " child-study " movement. 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. What will be the chief values of a science of childhood? 

2. Cite evidences of progress toward such a science. 

3. What proofs can you give from the history of your own community or 
state of the growth of humanitarianism in relation to children? 

4. Make a list of the child-welfare agencies of your community, and find 
out the approximate length of time they have existed. 

5. What has led to the establishment of these agencies, how are they 
supported, and what have they accomplished? 



28 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

6. Talk with your parents, grandparents, and other older persons about 
their teachers and early school experience. Does comparison with 
your own reveal any radical changes? For better or worse? 

7. Formulate the chief impressions a study of the history of the child 
and of child study makes upon you. 

8. As your study proceeds, form as definite an idea as possible of the 
fields and problems of child psychology which most urgently demand 
further study. 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY* 

1. Barnes, E. "Methods of Studying Children"; in Studies in Educa- 

tion (1896-97), vol. 1, pp. 5-14. 

2. Barus, A. H. "Methods and Difficulties of Child-Study"; in Forum, 

vol. 20, pp. 113-19. 

3. Bonger, W. A. Criminality and Economic Conditions. (1916.) 706 pp. 

4. Chrisman, O. "Child-Study; A New Department of Education"; in 

Forum, vol. 16, pp. 728-36. 
*5. Chamberlain, A. F. The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought. (1895.) 

464 pp. 
*6. Claparede, Ed. Experimental Pedagogy (1910), pp. 13-37. 

7. Cyclopedia of Education. Paul Monroe, editor. Vol. 5, pp. 866 ff. 

Historical and Biographical. 

8. Drummond, W. B. An Introduction to Child-Study (1905), pp. 1-7. 
*9. Gesell, A. L., and Gesell, Mrs. B. C. The Normal Child and Primary 

Education (1912), pp. 3-28. 
.10. Hall, G. S. "Child-Study: The Basis of Exact Education"; in Forum, 
vol. 16, pp. 429-41. 

11. Hall, G. S. "The New Psychology as a Basis of Education"; in 

Forum, vol. 17, pp. 710-20. 

12. Hall, G. S. "Child-Study and its Relation to Education"; in Forum, 

vol. 29, pp. 688-702. 

13. Hall, G. S. "Child-Study at Clark University"; in Am. Jour. Psy H 

vol. 14, pp. 96-106. 

Contains bibliography of questionnaire studies at Clark University. 

14. Hall, G. S. "Recent Advances in Child-Study"; in Ped. Sem„ voL 

15, pp. 353-57. 

15. Hall, G. S. Proceedings of the Child Conference for Research and Wel- 

fare (1909), vol. 1, pp. ix-xvi. Preface. 

16. Hall, G. S., and others. "General Outline of the New Child-Studj 

Work at Clark University"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 17, pp. 160-228. 

Contains classified bibliographies, and statement of the purposes of the Chil« 
dren's Institute. 

* Note. The references starred in each bibliography are likely to be of especial value to 
the beginner in securing a general view of the topic. 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 29 

17. Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. (1911.) 2 vols., 710 pp. and 

714 pp. 

18. Hart, H. H. The Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children (1910), 

pp. 1-8. 

19. Holmes, A. The Conservation of the Child (1912), pp. 15-31. 

An historical sketch of the work with the feeble-minded. 

20. Kidd, D. Savage Childhood. (1906.) 314 pp. 

21. Kirkpatrick, E. A. "Point of View of Genetic Psychology"; in Jour. 

of Educ. Psy., vol. 1, pp. 76-82. 

22. Misawa, T. Modern Educators and their Ideals (1909), pp. 267-90. 

23. Monroe, W. S. "Child-Study in Europe"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 6, pp. 

372 ff. 

24. Monroe, W. S. "Child-Study in Europe"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 8, pp. 

511 ff. 
*25. Payne, G. H. The Child in Human Progress. (1916.) 400 pp. 

26. Pedagogical Seminary. See indices under "Child Study." 

27. Russell, E. H. "Biographical Sketch of President Hall"; in Am. 

Jour, of Insanity, vol. 53, pp. 317-22. 

28. Shinn, Miss M. W. Biography of a Baby (1900), pp. 1-19. 

History of baby biographies. 

29. Smith, Miss T. L. "Child-Study at Clark University"; in Ped. Sem., 

vol. 12, pp. 93-96. 

30. Smith, Miss T. L. "The Development of Psychological Clinics in 

the United States"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 21, pp. 143-53. 
81. Stratton, G. M. Experimental Psychology and Culture (1903), pp. 1- 
16. 

32. Swift, E. J. Mind in the Making. (1898.) 329 pp. 

33. Transactions of the Illinois Society for Child-Study. (1895-1900.) 

Record of the work of this society. 

34. United States Commissioner of Education, Report of. (1897-98.) Vol. 

2, pp. 1281-1384. 

35. Villa, G. Contemporary Psychology (1903), pp. 8-62. 

36. Wilson, L. N. G. Stanley Hall. (1914.) 144 pp. 

Contains a bibliography of President Hall's writings to date. 

87. Wiltse, Miss S. E. Articles dealing with the history of child study. 
Ped. Sem., vol. 3, pp. 189-92; vol. 4, pp. 111-25. See also Proc. 
N.E.A. (1896), pp. 837-43. 



CHAPTER II 

METHODS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF CHILDREN 

The value of scientific method. All sciences have beek 
built up by the use of systematic observation and experi- 
mentation. The science of childhood can be no exception. 
The study of children by the methods of modern science 
has now been seriously undertaken. This new and valu- 
able science will advance rapidly only when all who have 
to do with children abandon preconceived notions about 
them, and once for all give up hope of understanding them 
by mere intuition, by armchair theorizing, or by empirical 
methods alone. Nothing but the most careful, unbiased, 
systematic, and persistent study of facts will lead to sci- 
entific knowledge. The security and the value of our knowl- 
edge, therefore, depend clearly upon the qualitative validity 
of the methods of observation, research, and experimen- 
tation used in the amassing of that knowledge. 

Methods most used. Some idea, then, of the methods 
that have been generally used in the study of children so 
far is needed by all who read and use the facts that have 
been accumulated by them. It is always true that in the 
beginning of any new line of research, methods are used 
which the light of experience proves to be of little value. 
Experience also leads to the refinement and improvement 
of methods. So, while most of the methods used in the 
study of children have yielded some results of value, they 
are not all of equal merit. It is also true that certain 
methods lend themselves very well to the accomplishment 
of one kind of result and very poorly to others, and that a 
method may be well and wisely used, or it may be used 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 31 

carelessly and unwisely. We have not the space to enter 
into elaborate criticism or evaluation of all of the methods* 
but must content ourselves with a brief sketch of a few of 
those that have been more widely used, and the purposes 
they are designed to serve. 

Biographical. The first scientific studies of child life 
which have come down to us consist of careful, consecutive, 
methodical records of direct observations of the time of 
appearance, the order of development, the nature and 
relationship of instinctive tendencies, of physical traits, of 
mental, moral, and social capacities and activities of indi- 
vidual children. The method need not be, but has for the 
most part been, confined to the study of infancy. Most of 
the studies so far made by this method do not carry us be- 
yond the third year of the child's life, chiefly no doubt by 
reason of the difficulty attendant upon carrying them fur- 
ther. The method is seen at its best in the studies of Preyer, 
Miss Shinn (37), and Dearborn (12) to mention only three, 
each of which is superior in its own way. Every student 
of infancy should know at least one of these studies and 
the contribution it makes to our knowledge of infancy. 

The scientific value of such studies depends very much 
upon the scientific preparation of the observer. The ob- 
server must possess those characteristics of the scientist so 
well summarized by Drummond (13), — a passion for facts, 
a questioning attitude, a controlled scientific imagination, 
boldness, accuracy as an observer, be possessed of that 
general intelligence which gives sanity and caution to inter- 
pretations, and must be free from preconceived notions. 

The general procedure in such studies of infancy as those 
to which reference has been made has been in the main that 
of careful, systematic, consecutive observations of individual 
infants, with prompt record of all observations in the form 
of notes which are later collated and interpreted. To some 



32 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

extent the observation of spontaneous developments has 
been supplemented by experiments designed to test sen- 
sory capacity, power of discrimination, ability to recog- 
nize, choice of color, volitional control, and like capacities. 

The method has already yielded results of both theoreti- 
cal, scientific, and practical value. There is room for many 
more such studies and, quite apart from the hope of making 
any scientific contribution, the carrying out of such a study 
with Preyer or Shinn as a model is a fascinating one for 
any parent and one fruitful in results to any person intelli- 
gent enough to make it. The chief limitation of the method 
as a means of building up a science is its slowness. The 
fact that it is an individual method, and that the limitless 
scope of the observations included make it exceedingly diffi- 
cult to use as a child grows older, have in practice been the 
important reason for its restriction to studies of infancy. 

Direct questioning. Hall's classic study of the Contents 
of Children s Minds on Entering School is perhaps the best 
illustration of a fruitful use of the method of the direct 
question. In this study there is not only a clear statement 
of the procedure, but also a good treatment of the neces- 
sary caution which must be observed in its use. The chil- 
dren were asked singly, or by turn in small groups, to re- 
spond to simple, direct, factual questions concerning the 
common things of life about which they were supposed 
to know something. Use was made of one hundred and 
twenty-three questions such as: " Have you ever seen a 
cow, pig, sheep, hen, bee, frog, ant, robin? " " Have you ever 
seen apples on a tree, grapes on vines, wheat or potatoes 
growing? " "Have you ever seen a hill, brook, woods, an 
island, a river?" "Where does milk, butter, meat, leather, 
cotton, wool, come from?" "Show me your elbow, cheek, 
forehead, ankles, knee, throat, ribs." "Have you ever seen 
a watchmaker, bricklayer, shoemaker, farmer at his work?" 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 33 

Questions to determine the child's knowledge of the num- 
bers three, four, five; of the forms triangle, square, circle; 
the colors green, red, blue, yellow, etc. "Can you name 
three things that it is wrong to do? Three things that it is 
right to do?" Such questions were often followed by such 
others as seemed necessary to determine with fair accuracy 
whether the child had or had not any real concept. The 
results were recorded and later tabulated and treated 
statistically. By such a method inventories of the content 
of children's minds are secured and some light is thrown on 
the nature of their concepts, knowledge, ignorance, experi- 
ence, training, and their general intelligence. 

In a similar way classes of children may be asked to write 
their individual answers to set questions as a regular com- 
position exercise and the papers gathered, analyzed, the 
results tabulated, treated statistically, and interpreted. 
Barnes (3) made very extensive use of this method in the 
early nineties using such questions as: "What person of 
whom you have ever heard or read would you most wish to 
be like? Why ? " " If you could go any place you wish where 
would you like to go? Why?" "What do you mean by 
each of the following words: monk, peasant, emperor, armor, 
nation, school?" "Describe the prettiest thing you have 
ever seen and say why you thought it pretty." By such 
questions some idea can be had of the children's degree of 
imaginativeness; the ideals they hold and the change in 
them with age; the nature of their dominant interests; the 
content of the words they use; their ideas regarding punish- 
ment, ethical problems, theological notions, and many 
more. Of the Barnes studies that of Children's Ideals is il- 
lustrative of the best results secured by his use of the 
method of the single or set question. 

The method has decided limitations, and has been much 
abused. Much depends on the tact of the questioner, upon 



34 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

the uniformity of procedure used by different questioners 
whose results are to be compared, and especially upon the 
nature of the questions asked. The well-known suggesti- 
bility of children, their desire to please, the desire of some 
to startle or shock the investigator, and many other com- 
plicating factors often enter to make the value of the results 
questionable. In spite of its very evident defects a good 
deal of valuable insight into certain phases of child thought, 
feeling, and activity has been gained by this method. Much 
valueless material has also been collected, and no doubt 
much that is actually misleading rather than enlightening. 
Studies by this method should, therefore, be read critically. 
Clinical. The term "clinical method" was borrowed from 
the medical school, and was first applied by Witmer (44) to 
designate a method he was using at the University of 
Pennsylvania. The method aimed to secure as complete a 
picture as possible of all pertinent facts concerning the 
heredity, family, and personal history, and the present 
physical, mental, and moral traits of a single child. The 
method was used at first, and to a considerable degree is 
still used, most commonly in the study of exceptional and 
unusual children, although there is no necessary reason why 
it should be so restricted. The various phases of the phys- 
ical examination were often conducted by dentists and 
physician specialists in the respective fields of eye, ear, 
nose and throat, nerves, etc. The mental examination was 
sometimes made in the presence of a class studying such 
problems, — hence the name clinical, — although this is 
now generally admitted to be undesirable, and is not in any 
way essential to the method. The method is coming rapidly 
into vogue, especially since the recent rapid advance and 
extension of mental and intelligence tests which have now 
risen to such prominence as to deserve the separate treat> 
ment which we attempt a little farther on. 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 35 

There seems to be just now a strong tendency toward the 
training of clinical experts who shall be qualified to make 
both physical and mental examinations. There is a rapidly 
growing field, for persons so trained, in juvenile courts, re- 
formatory and penal institutions, institutions for mental 
deficients, in business establishments, and in school systems 
where the fullest possible knowledge of the present traits 
and capacities of an individual need to be known for practi- 
cal purposes and need to be determined in a short space of 
time. 

Questionnaire. A questionnaire presents for answer a 
large number of questions on a single topic or group of closely 
related topics, often arranged under several separate heads. 
Sometimes the questions call for direct, first-hand observa- 
tion of children, but most often for reminiscences of one's 
own earlier thoughts, feelings, ideas, and observations. 

The questionnaire method as a means of research in child 
study was introduced into this country and was most widely 
used, and, according to Claparede, abused, by President 
Hall. Several hundred questionnaires have emanated from 
Clark University, most of them written in whole or in part 
by Dr. Hall. This was the popular method during the last 
decade of the nineteenth century. An astonishing amount of 
work was put upon many of the studies of that period. Many 
volumes are required to report the findings. The method is 
still used to some extent, but has been largely superseded. 

There is a strong tendency in recent years to criticize 
severely, if not to discredit entirely, much of the work of 
this class. Claparede (10) and Thorndike (40, p. 32) present 
the ultra-critical view. Smith (38), Gault (15), and Cham- 
bers (24) may be consulted for a more impartial, or perhaps 
we should say favorable, view as to the use of question- 
naires. Since the method played a very important role in 
the early history of the child-study movement, a brief 



86 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

resum£ of the criticisms and justifications of its use seems 
necessary as a guide to the reading of literature of that 
period, and further, as Thorndike (40, p. 37) states it, "re- 
spect for their aim if not for their results, and for his [Hall's] 
ability if not for his method, requires due consideration for 
these reports.'* 

The value of a questionnaire study depends upon, (1) the 
nature of the topic to be investigated; (2) the care and skill 
with which the questions are formulated; (3) the composi- 
tion and representative character of the group of persons 
answering; (4) the honesty and conscientiousness of those 
who answer; (5) the scientific ability of the investigator 
who attempts to interpret the data or to draw deductions 
from it; and (6) the kind of use that is to be made of such 
deductions. 

Against the questionnaire it has been argued that the 
method is unreliable, especially in unskillful hands; that it 
is inaccurate, since hearsay is often confused with fact, and 
reminiscence with direct observation; that it too often sug- 
gests what the questioned is expected to say; that a cross- 
sectioning of the physical and mental nature of many 
children gives us no accurate picture of the development of 
any single child; that "the progress from a set of statements 
about individuals to a statement about a group including 
them is by no means a matter of simple addition " (40> 
p. 36); that a thousand statements, if they are erroneous, 
can bring us no nearer the truth than one; that often the 
statements made by the group studied do not represent the 
true state of affairs within the group because, (1) not all 
those questioned answer; (2) those who have usually 
answered have been select groups (normal school students, 
mostly young women); and (3) even these have often 
answered the questions as an academic task. The most 
valid general criticism of these studies is that many of them 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 37 

have been carried through without due regard for these 
serious sources of error which are unavoidably to be en- 
countered. 

Most of the above criticisms have been answered with 
more or less success. It is urged that, upon selected topics, 
qualitative material and even statistical material of real 
value can be collected; that the unreliability, inaccuracy, 
and undue suggestiveness of the questionnaire are in part 
remediable defects; that even the opponents of the method 
admit that some real contributions to our scientific knowl- 
edge have been made; and that some of the criticisms of this 
method have almost equal weight against other methods. 
Those who defend the questionnaire contend, with con- 
siderable success, that the studies made by this method 
have performed several very useful functions already, even if 
it should be granted that its day is largely past. Not the 
least among these services rendered the science of child life 
are the following: A wealth of concrete data on all phases 
of childhood and youth has been gathered which could not 
have been collected so quickly, if at all, in any other way; 
innumerable questions, unthought of before, have been 
opened to investigation by other more refined methods; and 
many of the studies have revealed the existence of age 
boundaries and general characteristics of stages of develop- 
ment in child life quite unrecognized before. In general the 
studies by this method have played no insignificant part 
in the movement which has taken psychology from the 
realm of the abstract and brought it into vital relation with 
life and with education. It is by no means insignificant 
either that the numerous studies made under his direction 
have furnished Dr. Hall a tangible basis for the construction 
of the most interesting, stimulating, vitalizing, and sug- 
gestive educational philosophy of modern times, a philoso- 
phy which finds its basis in the laws of child growth and 



38 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

development, a philosophy which puts the child in the center, 
a philosophy which is fundamentally genetic and evolu- 
tionary. It is perhaps not too much to say further that, 
with due regard to the serious limitations of the method, it 
has been a means of arousing popular interest in child life 
and welfare to an extent that no other method could have 
done in the same length of time. 

The method has been used to gather data on almost every 
conceivable phase of the innate tendencies, emotions, mental 
and physical traits and capacities, motor abilities, interests, 
ideas, moral and religious responses and attitudes, etc., of 
children. Questionnaires on such subjects as play, collect- 
ing, dolls, truancy, ownership, hydro-psychoses, dendro- 
psychoses, crying and laughing, creeping and walking, 
language, fear, anger, pity, love, jealousy, reminiscence, 
memory, imagination, imitation, suggestion, obstinacy, lies, 
obedience, conversion, interests in pictures, words, flowers, 
nature, pets, reading and scores of others have been widely 
circulated, responded to, and the data so gathered studied 
and interpreted. 

It is difficult to estimate judicially the ultimate contribu- 
tion of the questionnaire method to the science of the child, 
but it is safe to say that no truthful history of this growing 
science can ignore the contributions we have mentioned. If 
in this book somewhat less attention is given to the studies 
of this type than some of the earlier books have given, it 
must not be taken to indicate that we consider them value- 
less, but rather that we believe that the best contributions 
they have made have become common knowledge, and that 
now more time and space must be given to the newer and 
more scientific methods and their results. 

Statistical. Whenever the data of child study lend them- 
selves to quantitative treatment the statistical method is 
employed. The purpose of statistical treatment is the estab- 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 39 

lishment of a quantitative science of the child. When norms, 
standards, and average deviations can be set up for all im- 
portant physical, mental, and moral traits and capacities, 
they make for certitude in our understanding of and dealing 
with children. 

For trustworthy statistical treatment of any data a few 
general principles should be had in mind. To reduce error to 
a minimum the greatest care and accuracy must be taken 
in gathering the data in the first place. The number of cases 
should be numerous enough to offset the disturbing effect 
in distribution of unusual and exceptional cases. In ordinary 
matters some hundreds or thousands of cases are needed for 
the establishment of conclusions that are expected to be of 
general use or applicability. On the other hand, statistical 
results may sometimes be misleading by reason of excess of 
numbers which tends to obscure important minor deviations. 
In such cases it is just as dangerous to have too many as to 
have too few data. Again, the cases should be typical and 
representative or non-selected, unless it is the effect of selec- 
tion that is to be tested. It must be evident, then, that the 
value of statistical studies depends much upon the nature of 
the statistical material itself; upon the judgment and good 
sense of the scientist who uses it; and upon the purposes for 
which the results are to be used. There is no innate virtue 
in mere figures. Figures do not lie, but untruthful people 
sometimes mislead us with figures, and careless people often 
draw wrong deductions from them. All statistical studies 
should be examined in the light of the cautions we have 
cited. 

Statistical terms. Three or four terms used in statistical 
studies need to be clearly understood. (1) The arithmetical 
mean, or average, is the commonest value sought, and is the 
best known. It is merely the result obtained by dividing the 
sum of all the values found by the number of cases. For 



40 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

example, if 100 children are measured for stature, trie mean 
height is obtained by dividing the sum of all the heights by 
100. (-2) The mediaji, or middle value, is sometimes of more 
interest than the average. It is found by arranging all the 
values in the order of their occurrence from the lowest to the 
highest, and then by actual count the one standing in the 
middle is found, or, in case the number is even, the average 
of the two middle values is taken as the median value. 
This value may or may not coincide with the mean. In our 
illustration above we might in this case line up our 100 
children in order, beginning with the shortest and ending 
with the tallest. Our median height would be the average 
height of number 50 and number 51. (3) The tenn mode is 
applied to the value that in any series occurs most fre- 
quently. If. for example, fifteen of our children were found 
to be forty-eight inches tall, and this height occurred two or 
three times as often as any other, then forty-eight inches is 
clearly the mode for our group which is, let us say, a group 
of eight-year-olds. 

The statistical method has been widely used in the field 
of child study, and often, it must be admitted, in a way to 
give the appearance of scientific value to data which should 
not have been so dignified. With the growth of the tendency 
to use greater care in the choice of subjects for study, the 
refinement of statistical methods, and the critical reception 
which careless studies meet, reports of this kind now appear- 
U3 g are of a higher grade than formerly. In a quantitative 
science the method is indispensable. Constant reference 
will be made throughout this book to studies of this type, 
and for best results the reader should be familiar with such 
fuller discussions of this method as those of Titchener (41), 
Kugg C3-2.J, Rusk (33), or Whipple (43). Monroe (25) gives 
a simple and quite elementary treatment which teachers 
may find useful. 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 41 

Parallel groups. Winch ! and others have of late made 
considerable use of the method known as that of parallel 
groups. It is well adapted to the study of certain kinds of 
practical school problems, and, since it is comparatively 
easy to apply, it is likely to have more extensive use. Such 
problems as the relative merit of different methods of learn- 
jg, of study, and of teaching and training, can be much 
more accurately determined by this method than by un- 
verified opinion. 

The method is used in two ways. In one it is essential to 
have two groups of children of approximately equal ability 
in the capacity to be tested. In the other, two tasks of equal 
difficulty must be devised. A preliminary test of the ability 
of a group of children in spelling, for example, is given 
under controlled conditions. On the basis of this test the 
pupils are divided into two groups of practically equal 
ability (so far as this capacity is concerned), by pairing two 
pupils of equal ability, putting one in group "A" and the 
other in group "B," till all have been placed. Then one 
may proceed, under any desired conditions as to time and 
procedure, to teach the two groups a list of one hundred 
difficult words, many of which they are known to be unable 
to spell correctly. If the method used with group "A" is 
entirely different from that used with group "B," but all 
other conditions are kept rigidly the same, one may in the 
end be able to draw some conclusions of value as to the 
relative merits of the methods employed. This can be 
judged by a final test, given at some time well after the 
completion of the test teaching. It is possible also to make 
from the results of the preliminary test two tasks of equal 
difficulty, in this case two groups of words, and then to 
teach the entire group of children list "I" by one method, 

1 Winch, W. H. "Experimental Researches on Learning to Spelh" in 
Journ. Educ. Psy., vol. 4, 525-37; 579-92. 



42 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

and list "II" by another. The relative merits of the two 
methods may be thus quite well determined. 

Studies of this type should be repeated often by the same 
and by different observers, with all conditions kept the 
same except the one being tested, before too much weight 
is attached to the results, for matters of this kind are 
usually exceedingly complex. Unquestionably, however, the 
use of such a method will ultimately throw much light upon 
the learning process, and will place teaching procedures 
upon a much more scientific basis than that upon which 
they rest at the present time. 

Intelligence tests. Since the publication in 1905, by Binet 
and Simon, of their first series of graded tests of intelligence, 
a tremendous amount of scientific and popular interest has 
developed in the new method thus afforded. A great number 
of workers are devoting at least a part of their time to the 
use, improvement, revision, and extension of the Binet- 
Simon scales of 1908 and 1911, or to the perfecting of other 
similar instruments for the same purpose. 

The object of such tests is to furnish a handy means by 
which, in a very short space of time, a psychological analysis 
can be made of certain significant capacities, so that the 
grade or level of the child's intelligence may be estimated. 
Binet's great contribution consists in his discovery of the 
possibility of constructing an age-grade series of tests. The 
tasks or performances, usually five or six for each year, are 
arranged in an increasing order of difficulty in such a way 
that a normal child should be just able to pass those of his 
own chronological age and those of the years below this, 
but not those above. The placing of the tests in the series 
is, of course, determined by actual trial with large groups of 
normal children, in short, it is an experimental scale. In 
choice of tests an attempt is made to select such as measure 
cative ability, rather than the effects of training or scho- 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 43 

lastic attainment. The tests are also so chosen that by their 
variety they explore all important phases of intelligence. 
They especially aim to test the common sense, adaptability, 
foresight, initiative, and judgment of the subject in meeting 
such situations as are called for in everyday life. 

The tests are administered individually, and it is espe- 
cially important that the child be in sympathetic rapport 
with the examiner, and that the examination be made under 
conditions that favor in every way the child's best effort 
and success. It has been found that the accuracy of the 
results of classification by means of such scales is definitely 
affected by the procedures followed in its administration, 
the method of scoring, the training and insight of the ex- 
aminer, and by still other factors. A standard method of 
administration has, therefore, been perfected to reduce error 
to a minimum (39) . 

The measurement of intelligence (an accepted definition 
of which has not been agreed upon as yet) is by no means so 
simple a matter as the taking of anthropometric measure- 
ments, nor are any of the intelligence scales to be looked 
upon as instruments of precision comparable to the foot-rule 
or the standard scales for weight. It is frankly admitted by 
all that the intelligence scale has its distinct limitations. 
Its advocates do not claim that it gives a complete measure 
of any one of the intellectual capacities, such as memory, 
sense-discrimination, reasoning, and the like. Neither do 
they claim by its use alone to be able to give complete voca- 
tional or pedagogical advice. It is only claimed that a rather 
clear and definite notion of the child's level of intelligence 
can be arrived at, more readily and accurately than other- 
wise, by observing the combined functioning of his various 
mental capacities as he works out these tasks of known 
difficulty. While this is not the only measure that one would 
wish to have, it does furnish a ready means of insight into 



44 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

one of the most important elements determining the child's 
capacity for school work, for vocation, his degree of responsi- 
bility for his own conduct and his ability to manage his own 
affairs with discretion. 

It is too soon to give a final estimate of the value of this 
method. Opinions differ widely, but many consider it an 
epoch-making discovery. It has already come into very 
wide use in institutions for the feeble-minded, delinquent, 
and exceptional in public schools, and as an aid in vocational 
guidance. As a by-product of its use for practical mental 
classification a great deal of psychological insight into the 
nature and development of the mental capacities of children 
is already being gained. Its use has given to child psychology 
an exceedingly important and entirely new impetus which 
in itself is of tremendous value. The exact nature of the 
tests, the methods of their administration, their purposes, 
and the results of their use so far have been set forth so 
clearly and splendidly by Terman (39) that we need not 
dwell upon them further. All who are interested should read 
his account of the whole subject. 

Interpretation. The interpretation of the results of ob- 
servation and experimentation is fraught with no less seri- 
ous difficulties than are the processes of discovery of the 
facts themselves. Some consideration of the chief sources 
of error is necessary for those who attempt original inter- 
pretations, and for those who merely hear or read the 
conclusions of others, so that neither may be unwittingly 
misled. 

In the first place, it must be kept in mind that in a field 
so complex as that of human life, many errors are likely to 
creep into interpretation in spite of the greatest care, just 
as we have already shown they do into observation and 
experiment. It is well, then, that interpretations, induc- 
tions, and deductions be usually considered as tentative, and 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 45 

that they be repeatedly verified before they are formulated 
into laws. There is peculiar danger of error in the study of 
the behavior and psychology of children. We are still in- 
clined to do the very thing which for so long prevented the 
recognition even that a science of childhood was needed, 
namely, to think of child behavior and child thinking in 
terms of our own thinking and behavior. If child study has 
accomplished any one thing during its brief history, it is 
that it has proved the child to be not an adult in miniature, 
either physically or mentally, but a different being. His 
body is not merely smaller; it is different in every fiber. His 
mind is not merely quantitatively different; it is different in 
kind. His behavior not only concerns itself with different 
objective things, for the most part, but it is differently con- 
ditioned from within. One must not, we now know, hastily 
draw conclusions concerning the thinking, feeling, or doing 
of a child by introspecting upon one's own thoughts, emo- 
tions, or acts under apparently similar circumstances. Such 
a procedure is usually very misleading. In this connection 
the "doctrine of economy," long ago applied by Morgan to 
the study of animal mind, is undoubtedly a safe doctrine. 
"In no case," says Morgan (27, p. 53), "may we interpret 
an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical 
faculty if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise 
of one which stands lower in the psychical scale." The 
neglect of this principle leads to the psychologist's fallacy, 
to the common error of attributing too much intelligence 
to the child and of expecting too much of him. This caution 
is a very necessary one, even if it is difficult to apply. 

So closely are the higher forms of behavior linked with in- 
telligence in our ordinary thinking that we are apt to be 
misled by the fact that some of the most perfectly adaptive 
forms of instinctive behavior seem to evidence a keenness of 
intelligence that is certainly not present. Here the principle 



46 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

of the philosopher Descartes is of aid in interpretation. His 
belief was that apparently intelligent behavior in a limited 
field could not be taken as a sign of real intelligence, unless 
the general behavior evidenced the same apparent intelli- 
gence. If this be true, it may be briefly stated that lack of 
intelligent behavior is likely to be good evidence of lack of a 
corresponding degree of intelligence, but apparently intelli- 
gent behavior is much less certainly an index to correspond- 
ing intelligence. 

Meumann has also given us a principle which is of assist- 
ance in judging correctly the progress of an individual under 
observation, or of estimating the probable capacities of 
groups at certain stages. If at a given stage a child has been 
judged to possess a certain trait or capacity, which later he 
is proved not to possess, we must judge ourselves in error 
in the earlier observation. Or, to state the principle posi- 
tively, we may say that failure to show possession of a trait 
or capacity now (at say nine years) is evidence that it was 
not present earlier (at say seven years). This principle en- 
ables us to check up the accuracy of earlier observations and 
experiments in individual studies. It also serves as a 
counter-check in estimating the correctness of conclusions 
drawn in group studies. 

Another frequent source of error is the argument, from 
teleological grounds, that because an act subserves a useful 
end, the actor must have been conscious of this end and 
have had it in view when the act was performed. This does 
not follow, and is especially misleading in the study of in- 
stinctive behavior. In this case advantageous acts may 
quite as well have originated by chance and have been 
perpetuated by natural selection. 

Once more, to be strongly committed to a theory, such as 
the theory of physical and mental recapitulation, of culture 
epochs, the doctrine of catharsis, the doctrine of psycho- 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 47 

physical parallelism, the doctrine of formal discipline, and 
the like, is quite likely to lead one, often quite uncon- 
sciously, to interpretations favorable to his theory and 
against opposing ones. In short, one needs throughout the 
scientific open-mindedness, reserve, and caution of a Dar- 
win if one would avoid becoming narrow and opinionated. 

Each of the methods we have outlined, and others of 
which we cannot here speak, has its place and use. Each 
has its limitations, which usually center in the human 
factors involved. Individual methods are slow and difficult. 
They do not readily furnish norms or averages, but they 
offer, perhaps, the richest field for future study. Group 
methods, on thf other hand, make control of conditions 
difficult, complicate results, and allow many sources of 
error to enter. By means of them very rapid progress can 
be made in the solution of certain well-selected problems, if 
they are carefully used. For the purposes of individual and 
differential psychology they are unreliable and often mis- 
leading. Introspective methods have relatively little place 
in child psychology, which must continue to be largely 
observational and inferential, although we are learning that 
in certain fields a careful investigator can get more and 
better introspective results with children than was once 
thought possible. Laboratory methods are most valuable, 
but often require expensive apparatus and training in 
technique which, perhaps fortunately, restricts their use. 
The association and psycho-analytic methods are difficult 
to evaluate as yet in relation to child psychology. For this 
reason, and because most of the literature concerning them 
and most of the studies of children made by them are so far 
not yet available to English readers, we have deemed it un- 
necessary to attempt descriptions of them here. Our later 
chapters will illustrate the applicability of scientific methods 
to the study of the problems of child psychology, for an 



48 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

understanding of which this brief sketch is designed to pre- 
pare the reader. 

Recognition of the many difficulties and pitfalls incident 
to a scientific study of human nature is in itself one of the 
best evidences of progress toward the ultimate solution of 
the many unsolved problems concerning child life. Progress 
in the perfecting of the technique of method is being made 
very rapidly. Investigations are being planned and carried 
out more carefully than ever before, errors in earlier studies 
and interpretations are being rapidly checked up, scientists 
of recognized standing are attracted to the investigation of 
problems of child life as never before. In a word, we seem to 
be entering what should be the most fruitful period of re- 
search in child psychology that the world has ever known. 
Educational insight, pedagogical practice, judicial proced- 
ure, sociological theory, industrial betterment, and many 
other lines of human thought and endeavor should reap 
many a golden sheaf from the ripening field of child psy- 
chology. 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Select some child or group of children for first-hand study, so that 
you may verify or test as many as possible of the points brought for- 
ward in our discussion. Observe carefully the cautions suggested 
under the topic "Interpretation." 

2. What evidences can you present that the assumption of a scientific 
attitude in the study of children has brought and will bring desirable 
results? 

3. Note any changes in your own opinions and attitudes toward children, 
as your study of the science of childhood progresses. 

4. Give an explanation and evaluation of each of the important methods 
discussed in this chapter. 

5. State definitely the differences between the methods now used, and 
those used during the first twenty years of the child-study movement* 
Give reasons for the changes. 

6. Explain the "law of parsimony" or "doctrine of economy." 

7. Explain Meumann's principle. 

8. Criticize the teleological argument. 



METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN 49 

9. State all the important characteristics of the scientific attitude as 
applied to the study of human nature. 

10. Explain the three common statistical terms and apply them in an 
original illustration. 

11. Read at least one questionnaire study and prepare a critical evalu- 
tion of it. 

12. Discuss the purposes, values, and limitations of intelligence tests. 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. Baldwin, J. M. Mental Development; Methods and Processes (1894), 

pp. 36-49. 

2. Barnes, E. Studies in Education. (1896-97.) " Methods of Studying 

Children"; in vol. 1, pp. 5-14. 

3. Barnes, E. Studies in Education. (1896-97 and 1902.) 

Both volumes illustrate in the main the use of the direct question method. 

4. Binet, A., and Simon, Th. Mentally Defective Children. (1914.) 180 pp. 

5. Bolton, F. E. "New Lines of Attack in Child-Study"; in Proc. N.E.A. 

(1902), pp. 703-10. 

6. Bryan, W. L. "Systematic and Unsystematic Child-Study"; in 

Proc. N.E.A. (1895), pp. 412-18. 

7. Bryan, W. L. "Scientific and Non-scientific Methods of Child-Study"; 

in Proc. N.E.A. (1896), pp. 856-60. 

8. Burnham, W. H. "Observation of Children at the Worcester Normal 

School"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 1, pp. 219-24. 

9. Cattell, J. McK. "Mental Tests"; in Mind (1890), vol. 15, pp. 372 ff. 
*10. Claparede, Ed. Experimental Pedagogy (1910), pp. 38-99. 

11. Cyclopedia of Education. Paul Monroe, editor. See "Child Psychol- 
ogy" and "Child-Study"; in vol. 1, pp. 611-20. 
*12. Dearborn, G. V. N. Moto-Sensory Development. (1910.) 215 pp. 
Illustrates the individual-biographical method. 

*13. Drummond, W. B. An Introduction to Child-Study (1905), pp. 8-37 

and 69-108. 
14. Freud, S. "The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis"; in 

Led. and Addresses on Psy. and Ped., Clark Univ. (1910), pp. 1-38. 
*15. Gault, R. H. "A History of the Questionnaire Method of Research 

in Psychology"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 14, pp. 336-83. 

16. Hall, G. S. "Methods, Status, and Prospects of Child-Study of 

To-Day"; in Trans, of III. Soc. for Child-Study, vol. 2, pp. 178-91. 

17. Hall, G. S. "Unsolved Problems of Child-Study and the Methods of 

their Attack"; in Proc. N.E.A. (1904), pp. 782-87. 

18. Hall, G. S. "Child-Study versus Adult Psychology in the Training of 

Teachers"; in Proc. N.E.A. (1904), pp. 568-75. 

19. Hall, G. S. Aspects of Child Life and Education (1907), Preface, pp. 

iii-ix. 



50 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

20. Jones, E. "Psychoanalysis and Education"; in Jour. Educ. Psy., 

vol. 1, pp. 497-520. 

21. King, I. The Psychology of Child Development (1903), pp. 1-15. 

22. Kirkpatrick, E. A. "The Point of View of Genetic Psychology"; in 

Jour, of Educ. Psy., vol. 1, pp. 76-82. 

23. Lang, O. H. "Some Cautions to be Observed in Child-Study"; in 

Proc. N.E.A. (1898), pp. 898-902. 

24. Monroe, W. S., Chambers, Kline, Williams, and Hall. "Methods of 
Child-Study"; in Proc. N.E.A. (1904), pp. 759-87. 

25. Monroe, W. S., De Voss, and Kelly. Educational Tests and Measure* 

meats (1917), chaps, viii-xi, pp. 241-302. 

26. Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method. (1912.) Especially 

chaps, i, n, and iv. 

27. Morgan, C. L. Introduction to Comparative Psychology. (1906.) 386 

pp. 

28. Myers, C. S. Text-Book on Experimental Psychology. (1909.) 432 pp. 

29. O'Shea, M. V. "The Purpose, Scope, and Methods of Child-Study"; 

in Jour, of Ped. (1898), vol. 11, pp. 9-22. 
*30. Partridge, G. E. An Outline of Individual Study. A Manual of Meth~ 
ods for Begimwrs. (1910.) 240 pp. 

31. Proceedings of the National Education Association. See "Child Study." 

32. Rugg, H. O. Statistical Theory Applied to Educational Problems. 

(1917.) 410 pp. 
*33. Rusk, R. R. An Introduction to Experimental Education (1913), pp. 
2-23. 

34. Russell, E. H. "Study of Children at the State Normal School, 

Worcester, Mass."; in Ped. Sem., vol. 2, pp. 343-57. 

35. Russell, E. H. Child Observations (1896), Introduction, pp. vii-xxxiii. 

36. Scripture, E. W. "Aims and Status of Child-Study"; in Educ. Rev., 

vol. 8, pp. 231-39. 

37. Shinn, Miss M. W. Biography of a Baby. (1900.) 247 pp. 

38. Smith, Miss T. L. "The Questionnaire Method in Genetic Psychol- 

ogy"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 10, pp. 405-09. 
*39. Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. (1916.) 362 pp. 

40. Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology; vol. 1, The Original Nature 

of Man (1913), pp. 27-42. 

41. Titchener, E. B. Experimental Psychology: Student's Manual (1905), 

pp. 38-106. 

42. Villa, G. Contemporary Psychology (1903), pp. 128-72. 

43. Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, Part i ; espe- 

cially pp. 1-60. (Bibliography.) 

44. Witmer, L. "Clinical Psychology"; in Psych. Clinic, vol. 1, pp. 1-9. 



CHAPTER in 

BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 

" Child study marks the introduction of evolutionary thought into the 
field of the human soul." G. Stanley Hall. 

Application of the principle of evolution. Since the day of 
Charles Darwin the theory of organic evolution has become 
a generally accepted working principle in all the biological 
sciences. In our own day the principle has been most illumi- 
natingly applied to the study of children. For this we are 
chiefly indebted to G. Stanley Hall, who has brought about 
the realization of the fact that in both body and mind the 
child is a product of seons of racial inheritance, and that in 
neither can he be rightly understood except as a product of 
the past and a prophecy of the future. The scope of the 
present discussion makes it impossible for us to dwell upon 
disputed points, to present details of evidence for and 
against, or even to give adequate explanation of the theory 
of evolution and its general applicability. We shall confine 
ourselves to those points which serve to show the value of 
applying the principle to the study of child life. Facts and 
principles of two kinds demand attention. First, those con- 
cerning the development of the human species with pertinent 
facts about other species, and, second, those concerning the 
development of the individual human being. To use the 
scientific terms, we are to examine the facts and principles of 
phylogeny and ontogeny. The latter is to be our chief con- 
cern, but since ontogeny develops upon a phylogenetic 
foundation the individual cannot be understood apart from 
the racial. We must, therefore, briefly outline the theories 
and principles of racial evolution. 



52 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

The theory of descent. The theory of organic evolution is 
an attempted explanation of the method of creation. Broadly 
speaking, it holds in the biological realm that all forms of 
life that have existed or that now exist have descended from 
one another and from a common ancestry, or from a limited 
number of original species. In the realm of sociology the 
present complex organization of society is looked upon as a 
gradual evolution from the simple and elemental social 
institutions of earlier ages. In the field of psychology the 
origin of mind is sought in the study of its most primitive 
forms. In short, the principle is merely a more specific, exact, 
and scientific statement of the everywhere-observed ten- 
dency to growth, development, and increasing complexity of 
structure, form, and function among living things and in- 
stitutions. Some such theory has been repeatedly stated 
more or less definitely by philosophers and naturalists, and 
from at least as early as the beginning of Greek philosophy 
to our modern pre-scientific age. Instances of crude evolu- 
tionary thought are not lacking among primitive peoples. 

In spite of this it remained for the nineteenth century to 
give the theory a scientific statement. Erasmus Darwin 
(1731-1804) and Lamarck (1744-1829) had made a serious 
attack upon this problem. To Lamarck credit is due for the 
first complete theory of organic evolution. His view was 
that by use, disuse, or injury, characters may be acquired by 
an individual and transmitted to his offspring. A succession 
of cumulative acquirements in a given direction would, he 
believed, give origin to new species. His theory was specu- 
lative and was not based upon scientific data, and so it was 
in reality a new and unsolved problem which Charles 
Darwin set himself, — that of placing the theory upon a 
jcientific basis. As a result of years of painstaking and 
patient study he was able to give it such a basis, in the year 
1859, by the presentation of a theory, with its supporting 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 53 

facts, — his "selection theory," — which was wholly new 
and which has made Darwin's name the greatest in the his- 
tory of biological science. No other scientific principle which 
has emanated from the mind of man has been more revolu- 
tionary. It has stimulated thought and research in every 
realm of life, and has created new and important sciences. 
Even the thinking of those who reject his theory has been 
profoundly modified. 

Source of evidences. The evidences for the theory of 
descent come from five main sources. (1) Comparative anat- 
omy, which yields evidence of structural homologies between 
organisms of different species. (2) Palaeontology, which has 
clearly revealed similar homologies between living species 
and extinct ones, the fossil remains of which are to be found 
in various geological strata. (3) Anthropology, which deals 
with the similarities and dissimilarities between races of 
different degrees of culture and civilization, revealing defi- 
nite evolutionary tendencies. (4) Comparative embryology, 
which supplies exceedingly interesting data concerning the 
progressive, evolutionary stages of individual development 
(ontogeny), which analogy has suggested as strikingly illus- 
trative of an epitomized history of racial stages (recapitula- 
tion), and that are at least entirely in consonance with the 
theory of descent. (5) Comparative psychology, which, by 
comparison of the mind of the adult with that of the child, 
of either with the minds of animals, of the mind of higher 
with that of lower animals, of that of higher with that of 
lower races, and by the study of folk-lore, traditions, human 
institutions, language, and arts, furnishes the data for the 
theory of mental evolution. 

The nature and reliability of such lines of evidence cannot 
be dwelt upon in detail here. There is a vast literature, and 
we shall have to assume some general knowledge of the 
subject on the part of the reader. We can only say that the 



54 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

evidence has been so convincing along many of these lines 
that biologists are agreed that the homologies discovered in 
the various fields of research are best explained when con- 
sidered to be evidences of blood relationship and com- 
munity of ancestry. It is needless to say that there is still 
a lack of convincing proof of many points which will remain 
in dispute until such evidence can be found. 

The problem of Darwin. Darwin's problem was, "How 
have species originated? " In quest of an answer he went to 
Nature herself. He observed (1) that the increase of all 
forms of animal life is in geometric ratio, and is therefore 
extremely prolific (multiplication); (2) that there is a con- 
stant appearance of differences among animals of the same 
species and generation (variation) ; (3) that there is a strong 
tendency to transmit such variations along with the essen- 
tial similarities of form, structure, and function which 
characterize a species (heredity). He observed further (4) 
the destruction of great numbers of animals through lack of 
sufficient food, through conflict with enemies, through in- 
ability to resist unfavorable climatic or other changes, and 
the like (natural selection) ; (5) the fact that survival in this 
"struggle for existence" of individual with individual and 
species with species, or of either with other hard conditions, 
appeared usually to fall to the lot of those individuals and 
species that varied from their kind in ways which gave 
them an advantage over their contemporaries, so that they 
remained to produce offspring ("survival of the fittest") 
and thus transmit, in accordance with the laws of heredity, 
their advantageous variations. 

From these and like facts Darwin reasoned that of the 
multitudes of animals born, the few that survive do so by 
reason of advantageous variations which give them su- 
premacy in the struggle for existence. The offspring of these 
survivors vary around a new point of vantage, and among 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 55 

the survivors are likely to be those who vary still further in 
the same advantageous direction. Thus, by a process of 
cumulative additions in succeeding generations of varia- 
tions in certain advantageous directions, new types or 
species gradually arise which are better adapted to their 
natural environment than those from which they sprang. 
On the basis of such observations Darwin proposed his 
theory of the origin of species by a process of natural selec- 
tion of small fluctuating variations of an advantageous 
character. On this theory the process of adaptation is a 
process of continual concession of the species to natural en- 
vironment. It is the resultant of the simultaneous operation 
of the factors of multiplication, variation, natural selection, 
and inheritance. 

It would have been nothing short of miraculous for any 
one man to discover, in so complex a field, a completely 
satisfactory theory. Darwinism has been widely criticized, 
and as an entirely correct explanation of the origin of species 
would be repudiated by Darwin himself were he living to- 
day, — indeed, he never claimed infallibility for it. But 
Darwin's idea of selection as the essential process in evolu- 
tion of species has placed all his successors deeply in his 
debt. Darwin himself gave no satisfactory explanation of 
the origin of variations, which is now one of the problems 
upon which more light is extremely desirable. He had little 
to say of the details of the laws of heredity, which are now 
the subject of most serious study, and he offered no satis- 
factory explanation of the mechanism of hereditary trans- 
mission. He did set the whole scientific world seriously at 
work to perfect theories of racial and individual evolution, 
and to seek proofs for them. If he had done no more his 
name would deserve to be inscribed among the immortals. 

Following the epoch-making work of Darwin it soon be- 
came evident that further progress in theories of evolution 



56 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

lay in the direction of investigations of the causes of varia- 
tion and of the mechanism of heredity. The closing years of 
the nineteenth century witnessed a gradual shifting of in- 
terest from the problem of the origin of species to that oi 
the origin of the individual. The latter is the more practical 
problem. However the human race may have originated, our 
hope of improving the inborn qualities of human nature now 
must rest upon our understanding of the laws of variation 
and inheritance, and upon the possibility of control of these 
great evolutionary forces. 

The earlier theories by which attempt was made to ex- 
plain the mechanism of heredity cannot be dwelt upon in 
detail here. 1 The emboitement theory of Bonnet that a fully 
formed animal in miniature was contained in the egg made 
its exit perforce with the beginning of microscopic study of 
embryology. Darwin's pangenesis theory, which postulates 
minute "gemmules" or particles of matter derived from the 
various somatic tissues, and which, circulating freely in the 
blood, come together in the germ cells, make up their con- 
stitution, and eventually develop into cells, has also been 
discarded. The theory had, of course, no basis in scientific 
fact, as had his selection theory, nor did Darwin have great 
faith in its accuracy. Galton, in his early books, makes con- 
siderable use of it, and as an explanation of the physical 
basis by means of which acquired characters may be trans- 
mitted, it is perhaps as good as any theory yet advanced. 
The theory of germinal localization proposed by His, which 
would make certain areas in the germ cell represent and 
develop into specific parts, organs, and tissues, has not been 
satisfying. The ideo-plasm theory of Nageli, which pro- 

1 Here and throughout the remainder of this exposition the reader must 
be referred to such references in our bibliography as: Castle (5), Conklin (9), 
Jordan (40), Parmelee (44), Thompson (56), Walker (63), Walter (64), etc., 
for fuller details. 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 57 

poses for each species its own peculiar plasm, which deter- 
mines the character of germ cells and offspring, replaces 
definite locations with definite substances, and seems some- 
what nearer the truth. There is no evidence against the 
theory, and some features of it are found to accord well with 
those of the chromosome theory which now has a large fol- 
lowing. Discussion of the latter is involved in and will be 
made incidental to a brief exposition of the cell theory of 
modern biology. 

The cell theory. Modern biology since Schleiden and 
Schwann (1838-39) teaches, among other things, that all 
living organisms, whether plant or animal, are composed of 
cellular units whose essential substance is protoplasm. Cells 
differ in form and structure as the organisms of which they 
are the units differ and as the functions they perform are 
diverse. All animal cells are, however, essentially alike in 
that all are constituted of a nuclear body enclosed by a 
cellular wall, which in turn is surrounded as a rule by cyto- 
plasm and a second enclosing membrane. In short, every 
cell consists of a cell body and a nucleus, if we disregard for 
the present certain minuter structures. In addition to this 
structural similarity all animal cells have, among others, 
the same functional capacities of secretion, digestion, assim- 
ilation, excretion, and reproduction of kind, and this is true 
whether they be independent organisms or only constituent 
parts of complex multicellular organisms. The unit of life 
is the protoplasmic cell. Here lie the secrets of life. 

For convenience we may roughly and somewhat arbi- 
trarily divide all forms of animal life into (1) the unicellular 
and (2) the multicellular. The study of unicellular organ- 
isms has in recent years added much to our knowledge of 
cell life in general, since all forms have very much in com- 
mon, but since our chief interest is in higher animal life, 
especially that of man, we shall confine our attention largely 



58 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

to the higher forms. This we may the more safely do since 
whether, uni- or multicellular, all animal organisms begin 
their existence as single cells essentially similar in structure 
and indistinguishable in gross appearance, however much 
they differ in potentiality. In this fact the original kinship 
of all life is strongly suggested. On the other hand, the 
extreme simplicity of the one and the marvelous complexity 
of the other dimly suggest the aeons it must have taken to 
develop the higher from the lower forms. Nature's method 
of differentiation of form and function in cell life, and of 
transmission of such differentiation, is the great problem of 
both racial and individual development. This is in large 
measure the present problem of experimental embryology. 
The evolutionary viewpoint has supplied new motive and 
incentive for the embryologist. It is our purpose to trace 
briefly the significant steps in individual development, or 
ontogeny, so far as they have been made out, in the belief 
that such a sketch helps us to think more clearly concerning 
the vexing problem of heredity. 

Ontogeny. As was just said, every organism begins its 
life as a single cell. The single-celled amoeba originates from 
a parent amoeba like itself by a simple process of division of 
the nucleus and cell body of its parent into two similar cells 
of which it is one. It has in like manner the capacity of be- 
coming parent, and by a similar division literally to become 
two individuals, for in a sense the division is such that there 
is nothing new here. Each of these cells can in turn repeat 
this process, under favorable conditions, more or less indefi- 
nitely. The process of multiplication and rejuvenation may 
be followed for hundreds of generations, but still the amoeba 
produces other amoeba and nothing else, and all are very 
much alike. 

If, on the other hand, a multicellular organism be studied, 
we find the method of reproduction quite similar in the 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 



59 



initial stage, and yet by no means so simple as we shall see. 
In the first place, among all higher animals, sexual repro- 
duction is the rule. Other intermediary forms which He 
between mere fission and sexual reproduction we shall pass 
by without discussion here. In sexual reproduction a new 
life originates not by the division of the parent body, but 
by the fusion of the nuclei and cell bodies of an ovum and 
spermatozoon derived 
respectively from a fe- 
male and a male or- 
ganism of like species. 
The resultant cell, 
commonly known as 
the fertilized ovum or 
"parent cell," is the 
beginning of a new 
life. It is a new organ- 
ism. It contains with- 
in itself the potential- 
ity of becoming a 
complete organism like 
the parents with whom 
originated the germ 
cells whose union pro- 
duced it. The way in which this potentiality becomes fact 
is nature's most fascinating story. 

Prior to their union into the "parent cell" or new life, 
certain significant changes take place in the germ cells 
themselves which must be briefly examined. The ovum 
and spermatozoon, which were doubtless primitively exactly 
alike, and which in an early stage of their development are 
still indistinguishable, are in their mature state structurally 
quite unlike (Fig. 1) and vastly different in bulk, though 
each possesses all the essential qualities of all cells. In 




a » 

Figure 1. Ovum and Spermatozoon 

A, Ovum. B, Spermatozoon. 



60 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

reaching the mature stage each of these cells passes through 
three preliminary stages, (1) a period of multiplication, (2) a 
period of growth, and (3) a period of maturation. These are 
preparatory stages of great practical and theoretical im- 
portance. Their significance lies chiefly in the fact that in 
the process the number of chromosomes in each is reduced 
to one half the number characteristic of the species. These 
chromosomes, which are minute V-shaped microscopic 
bodies found in the nucleus of the cell, are usually uniform 
in number for a given species, — probably twenty-four in 
the case of man according to Conklin, — and, as we shall 
see, play a very important role in cell division. Having 
passed through these three stages the germ cells are ready 
for the process of fertilization. 

In its mature form the ovum is nearly spherical in shape 
and varies from .22 to .25 mm. in diameter. The larger 
part of its bulk is constituted of food material for the 
developing embryo. The cell itself is immobile. The sperma- 
tozoon is a very minute, active, mobile cell, about .05 mm. 
long, but in bulk containing only from one one-hundred- 
thousandth (Wilson) to one one-hundred-millionth (Hert- 
wig) part of the volume of the ovum. It usually has a 
cylindrical or conical head containing the nucleus, a short 
middle-piece containing the centrosome, and a long vibratile 
tail of differentiated cytoplasm which serves as an organ of 
locomotion, enabling it to find and penetrate the cell wall 
of the ovum. 

Fertilization. The process of fusion of the mature ovum 
and the spermatozoon in sexual reproduction is an exceed- 
ingly complex one. The process begins when a spermato- 
zoon, by means of its peculiarly adapted structures, finds 
and penetrates the wall of a mature ovum. Immediately 
thereafter there begins an intricate series of transformations 
in the minute structures of the cells, and especially of those 
of the nuclei, the details of which it is not in place to present 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 



m 



F /■"••.■ 



^^" 



here. The significant part of the process for our present 
purpose is the selective division and combination of the 
chromosomes of the nuclei. The result of their combination 
is the restoration, in the "parent cell," of the characteristic 
number which, as was pointed out above, were reduced by 
one half in the process of maturation of the germ cells. Still 
more significant is the fact that, in the "parent cell," the 
chromosomes are now constituted of a combination of exact 
halves of chromosomes derived respectively from each of the 
germ cells. The proc- 
ess is a highly selec- ^ B 
tive one, and evidently *^ / 
by no means chance 
or meaningless. 

A further result of 
fertilization is that this 
" parent cell " now pos- 
sesses the potentiality, 
which neither germ cell 
alone possessed, of de- 
veloping into a com- 
plete, mature organ- 
ism, true to the spe- 
cies of its progenitors. 
Since it is the human 
germ cells of which we 
are speaking, it is potentially man. In other words, it is the 
carrier of inheritance. In it heredity makes its full and 
final contribution to the individual, the potentialities of 
whose inheritance from that point on begin to be realized. 
Heredity can add no more. Even prenatal influences must 
all be looked upon as environmental. They affect the devel- 
oping embryo, so far as heredity is concerned, no more than 
the favorable conditions furnished by an incubator affect 




Figure 2. The Parent Cell 



A, archoplasm. 

B, centrosomes. 

C, nuclear membrane. 



D, food particles. 

E, chromatin with connecting 
threads of linin. 

F, nucleolus. 



62 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

the inheritance of the chicks it hatches from the eggs of 
the hen. 

Mitosis. The process of mitosis (cell division) is essen- 
tially the same everywhere. There is no sufficient reason for 
our dwelling upon all the minute details of the early stages 
of this process. The accompanying figures (a-i) give an 
idea of their nature. By the very intricate and selective 




(a) Spireme. Asters formed, (b) Chromosomes. Spindle (c) Nuclear membrane lost. 

forming. 




(d) Chromosomes attached (e) Chromosomes attached (f) Longitudinal half of each 
to spindle fibers (polar to spindle are splitting. chromosome grouped at 

view). opposite poles (lateral 

view). 




(g, Division of cell body. 



(h) Reconstruction of 
nuclei. 




(i) Two complete daughter 
cells. 



Figure 3. Cell Division 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 63 

process there shown the "parent cell" divides into two 
daughter cells. Each of the daughter cells goes through a 
similar process, by means of which a four-cell stage is 
reached. Each of these in turn divides to form a generation 
of eight cells, and so the process of multiplication continues 
in geometric ratio. In all this division and subdivision each 
and every cell receives the characteristic number of chro- 
mosomes, and each is constituted of material derived equally 
and impartially from each parent germ cell. Every cell of 
the complete organism has therefore a bi-parental heritage. 
At first the daughter cells appear to be exactly alike in 
form, structure, and function. After a time, however, 
differentiations appear. One group of cells, the germ cells, 
are believed to be segregated and set apart from all the rest 
at an early period, to retain alone the power, under proper 
conditions, to give rise to an entirely new organism. Other 
groups are soon differentiated in form and function and set 
aside for the production of the various specialized parts, 
organs, and tissues of the body. We can take time here 
merely to outline the beginning of this differentiation. 
When by division in geometric ratio the number of cells has 
reached perhaps one hundred and twenty-eight, there is 
formed what is known as the blastula, which is a spherical 
mass of cells composed of an outer group and an inner mass 
grouped at one side of a large vesicle or cavity enclosed by 
the outer group. Soon after this stage there develop in all 
vertebrate embryos three primary germ layers of cells, the 
ectoderm (outer layer), the mesoderm (middle layer), and 
the entoderm (inner layer). The process of differentiation of 
parts and tissues from these primitive germ layers has not 
been positively made out in the development of the human 
embryo, and the details of it would take us too far afield. 
It seems clear, from inferences drawn from the study of 
embryos most like the human, that the development is 



te CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

somewhat as follows. The entoderm, whose cells are less 
modified from their primitive structure than those of either 
of the other layers, form the basis of the digestive system 
and its associated glands. From the mesoderm develop 
among others the supporting tissues (bone and cartilage), 
the striated muscles, and the blood. The ectoderm gives 
rise to the epidermis and its derivatives, to the nervous 
system, and several other groups of tissues (46). 

It is now generally believed that after this differentiation 
of cells to form various tissues has taken place, the cells 
retain the capacity to produce other cells of their own re- 
lated groups only; as, for example, bone cells produce other 
bone cells, muscle cells other muscle cells, etc. The more 
highly differentiated in structure and function a cell is, the 
less capacity it appears to have to produce anything but its 
own kind. It is even thought that the very highly specialized 
cells of the cerebral cortex have lost the power to multiply 
further, and that the full number of such cells is fixed for 
life possibly before birth, or at least very soon after. 

Rise of parts and organs. The processes by which parts 
and organs of the body are gradually built up out of the 
primitive germinal layers by cell division and functional 
differentiation, and the order in which such development 
takes place, constitute a long and intricate history. Aside 
from the study of the minute structure and activity of the 
cell in mitosis, the tracing of the successive stages of embry- 
ological development, and the attempt to interpret the 
meaning and significance of those stages, have occupied 
touch of the time of embryologists for some years past. 
One of the most interesting of the discoveries of the embry- 
ologist is the fact that all animal forms pass through similar 
stages, and the still more significant fact that at certain 
stages the embryos of animals as dissimilar as reptiles, 
birds, and mammalia can only with difficulty be distin- 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 65 

guished from one another. It has been further found that 
rudimentary organs arise at certain stages, continue for a 
time, and then either disappear or regress. 

Drummond (23, pp. 44-49) and Tyler (61, pp. 49-53) 
give interesting brief accounts of the course of embryo- 
logical development to illustrate the significant fact that 
during the early stages it would be quite impossible, if one 
could watch the whole course of development step by step, 
to tell what species of animal was being formed. There is 
little even remotely suggesting the human to be found in 
the form of the embryo of one month (46, pp. 94, 95). Com- 
parative embryology shows clearly that not only can the 
human embryo not be distinguished at early stages from 
that of other higher animals, but that it is for some time 
equally difficult to distinguish it from other lower forms. 
At one stage appear characters most like those of some of 
the low forms of sea life; at another like those of worms. 
Only with the unmistakable appearance, along the cen- 
trally located groove which is to be seen soon after the 
embryo assumes its elongated form, of little solid masses 
of cells arranged in a row, can we be certain that it is the 
embryo of a vertebrate with which we have to do. Even 
then we may easily mistake it for the embryo of a fish, for 
along the neck are to be seen what can be nothing else than 
the gill slits characteristic of primitive fishes. So, too, the 
examination of the heart at this stage reveals an organ of 
two chambers instead of four. Only when several stages of 
the development of the embryonic lungs have passed can 
we be certain that we are observing an air-breathing verte- 
brate. Still later the little prominences which slowly assume 
the form of limbs can only, by considerable stretch of the 
imagination, be conceived of as arms and legs; still less can 
one with certainty identify the slight protuberances at their 
extremities as hands and feet. Our difficulty is increased by 



66 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

the fact that at the same stage a well-marked tail, which 
will later disappear entirely, is seen at the end of the spinal 
column. But all these stages pass, and little by little each 
part and organ assumes more and more the typical human 
form. When the embryo, at about the end of the second 
month, has acquired unmistakably the form and structure 
of the human infant, it is thereafter known as a foetus. The 
unmistakable likeness of the human foetus to the form of 
the newborn infant should not blind us to the equally un- 
mistakable differences which only the last stages of embry- 
onic life obliterate. Still more important is it that we 
should not allow ourselves to remain unmindful of the fact 
that the body of the newborn babe is quite as different from 
that of the mature adult as is that of the ape. From birth 
to maturity many significant transformations must still 
take place. To have made this point and its significance 
somewhat clearer is, indeed, one of the most noteworthy 
contributions of the scientific study of children. 

The physical recapitulation theory. By such facts as 
those just outlined, as also by the fact that all animal forms 
originate in single cells, is strongly suggested the probable 
original kinship of all life. In fact, embryology has furnished 
and is furnishing some of the strongest evidences of the 
truth of the general theory of evolution. In these same facts 
the theory of recapitulation has found some of its strongest 
support. The story of individual development as we have 
outlined it has been assumed to be an epitome of human 
descent. Von Baer (1792—1876) suggested such a theory, 
but it was first clearly stated by Fritz Muller in 1863. 
According to this theory animals are believed to live over 
in their individual development, with some omissions and 
inversions of order, the various evolutionary stages through 
which their ancestry has passed. In Haeckel's concise 
phrase, "ontogeny repeats phytogeny." Physical recapitu- 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 67 

lation is assumed to be almost complete at birth, but mental 
recapitulation is almost if not entirely post-natal. This 
theory that the individual repeats the general features of 
the whole racial life would, of course, if it could be proved 
to be true, have profound significance in the interpretation 
of many phases of child life and activity. Without waiting 
for convincing proofs, the theory has already been widely 
so used by many scientists. In the physical field Ernst 
Haeckel has made perhaps the most sweeping applications 
of it. 

In the mental field it has been applied again and again 
by Hall and many of his earlier students, whose purpose it 
has been in part to find proofs of the theory in this field. 
This desire, coupled with the conviction that the human 
soul can only be known in its completeness when its whole 
phyletic history has been traced, has been the stimulus of 
very much of Hall's research. Even those who cannot follow 
him admit the fascination and stimulus of his genius in 
application of the theory. It must be said, however, that 
the theory rests on a very uncertain foundation, and that a 
recent reaction has set in against the sweeping applications 
of it that have long been current. Especially is this true of 
the pedagogical application of it by the Herbartian school, 
known as the theory of "culture epochs." 

Prenatal influences. The relation of the embryo to the 
mother during the prenatal period must be briefly examined 
for its bearing upon theories of inheritance. It must not be 
forgotten that, in most lower forms, and also in some rela- 
tively high in the animal scale, absolutely nothing is done 
for the offspring after the production and fertilization of the 
egg. Fishes, toads, and many other similar forms are cases 
in point. In others, as in the case of most birds, the incuba- 
tion is presided over, usually by the mother, and some care 
is given the young after birth, but, aside from the provision 



68 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

of the necessary warmth for incubation, the development 
of the egg through the embryonic stages to the newly hatched 
chick is entirely directed from within. In higher forms, where 
the embryo develops in utero, there is a very intimate rela- 
tionship with the mother during gestation. The developing 
embryo receives its nutriment and protection, during the 
period of its growth and development, from the mother. 
There is a strong popular conviction that both the body and 
the mind of the human child can be influenced for good or 
ill during this period. Scientific study indicates the necessity 
of considerable revision of the popular view. Embryologists 
point out that the connection between the mother and the 
embryo during the period of gestation is merely one by 
means of which the mother's blood supplies nutrition to 
the yolk of the embryo. Disturbances of nutrition in the 
mother, poisoning, infections by disease germs which may 
use the circulation of the blood as a means of transmission, 
may and do affect the embryo, but there is no other known 
mechanism by which it may be affected. Scientists are 
agreed that the whole period is one over which the mother 
has relatively little influence, and such as she has must be 
considered environmental rather than hereditary. 

Healy (38, pp. 202-08) gives a good resume of present 
views on the subject. He holds that it is pretty well estab- 
lished that "a wasting chronic disease, or a severe acute 
ailment" of the mother during pregnancy, may without 
doubt result in definite harm to the offspring. The effects 
of prolonged worry or emotional stress, neglect, overwork, 
or abuse of the mother are more difficult to evaluate, but 
since some of these causes are known to affect nutrition and 
to generate toxins, they may clearly have some effect. 
Recent studies made by the Children's Bureau find that 
infant mortality is relatively greater among children of 
mothers who overwork right up to the time of the birth of 



BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 69 

their children, and yet it is difficult to prove that this fact is 
wholly chargeable to prenatal conditions. Alcoholism, mor- 
phinism, and epilepsy in the mother, if markedly present 
during pregnancy, seem also to stand convicted by positive 
proofs. The germ of syphilis is known to infect the embryo 
very frequently when present, and the effects upon both 
physical and mental development of the offspring are more 
serious than those of any other disease. Of the effects of 
maternal impressions (telepathic influences) we have no 
proofs. Biologists and physicians generally deny such influ- 
ence except, as indicated above, through the possible effects 
on nutrition of both mother and child. In the same category 
stand birthmarks, popularly attributed to particular hap- 
penings. Pure chance seems a better explanation of these 
rare occurrences when nutritive disturbances seem inade- 
quate. Parents who are certain of the quality of the germ 
plasm which they transmit to their children need have 
little occasion for worry over the superstitious beliefs which 
the popular mind conjures up, provided the health of the 
mother is reasonably good during pregnancy. 1 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Carefully look up in the Glossary, or in the dictionaries and encyclo- 
pedias (15), the meaning of technical terms which are new to you. 

2. Just what does it mean to take the biological point of view with 
regard to children? 

3. What advantages are there in this point of view? 

4. Enumerate the sources of evidence for the theory of descent, and show 
the ways in which these have bearing on the problem. 

5. Just what was Darwin's major problem, and how did he attack it? 

6. Distinguish between Darwinism and evolution. 

7. Explain the cell theory, and show its bearing on theories of inheritance. 

8. State the significant facts in cell division. 

1 Mrs. Max West, Prenatal Care. Children's Bureau, Publication no. 4 
(1913), pp. 19, 20. 



70 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

9. State your own view as to the probable correctness of the theory of 

physical recapitulation. 
10. Can the psychical states of a mother affect her unborn child? Why? 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

See Bibliography at end of Chapter IV, which covers both Chapters III 
and IV. 



CHAPTER IV 

HEREDITY 

Racial and individual heritage- We have now sketched 
at some length a background for the discussion of heredity. 
If you have followed thus far, it must be clear that the 
heritage of every child is twofold — it is racial and indi- 
vidual. Body and mind are what they are in all essentials 
because of the operation throughout all the limitless past 
of the Laws of life upon his ancestry. Every part, organ, 
function, every muscle and fiber has its history and its 
pedigree, which cannot be ignored if it is to be understood. 
On the mental side every thought, feeling, and emotion is 
conditioned in ways we have scarcely learned to appreciate 
by racial as well as by individual experience. No fact in 
either of these realms can be wholly ignored. Mind and body 
have evolved together in the race, and there are intricacies 
of this relationship that are of the profoundest significance. 

On the other hand, each child has an individual heritage 
which differentiates him from every other human being. 
It is quite as essential to know the individual as to know the 
racial heritage. In the individual also mind and body 
develop together, here accentuating, there slurring over, 
everywhere in a broad way recapitulating, the racial herit- 
age, but often combining hereditary characters in new ways. 
We would not minimize the part environment plays. That 
we shall consider in due time, but we wish to impress the 
fact that inheritance is fundamental. Heredity, as Conklin 
(9, p. 359) suggests, is the base of the triangle of life of 
which environment and training are the sides, but heredity 
in any given case is fixed in the germ plasm, while environ- 



72 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

ment and training are exceedingly variable factors. The 
relative importance of these factors in the making of an 
individual is one of the most difficult, most disputed, and 
yet most practical problems of modern science. What has 
science to say of the part played by heredity? 



\ "^ ' 

* vV / 

s .A/w 
\ #/ y 

\ . ' s *' 

\ */ y* * 


\ * > 

s y i 
v 'I 

\ \V- > 

^ \ * J 
^ V \ \ / 

"-> V / 



Heredity 



Figure 4. Heredity, ENvraoisTMENT, and Training 

Diagram to show the influence of heredity, environment, and training in the de- 
velopment of an individual. Various types of individuals (represented by the 
triangles) may be produced from the same germ cells (heredity) if the environment 
and training are variable. (From Conklin's Heredity and Environment in the Making 
oj Men, by permission of Professor E. G. Conklin and the Princeton University Press.) 



Definition of heredity. Castle (5) defines heredity very 
simply as "organic resemblance based on descent." In 
speaking of heredity we are dealing with the recognized 
tendency of all living organisms to perpetuate their own 
qualities and those of their race in their offspring. Offspring 
resembles ancestry. In line with the newest light we have 
on the subject, the old expression, "like begets like," is being 
modified to "like tends to beget like," or "like begets some- 



HEREDITY 73 

what like," to make allowance for individual variations. The 
expression, the son is "a chip off the old block," needs, per- 
haps, to be restated, — "father and son are both chips from 
the same ancestral block." Heredity tends to conserve like- 
nesses, perpetuate types, differentiate races and species. 
Hereditary characters are synonymous with those some- 
times called "inborn," those which require for their develop- 
ment no other stimulus than that of nutrition, and no other 
opportunity than that of conditions favorable to growth. 
Perhaps Conklin's (9, p. 507) definition as "the appearance 
in offspring of characters whose differential causes are in 
the germ cells," is most in accord with present views of 
biologists. 

The inevitableness of heredity. There is nothing quite so 
certain as the inheritance of the fundamental qualities of 
our ancestry. Even some of the family traits are securely 
stamped upon the germ plasm. From human stock nothing 
but human stock ever issues. The infant of the ape never 
grows up to be a man. An infant of pure Caucasian blood is 
never born to parents of pure Chinese blood. Genius does 
not always issue from genius, but it is certain never to arise 
from an unmixed feeble-minded strain. The leopard cannot 
change his spots nor the Ethiopian his skin. Our idealistic 
forefathers declared that "all men were created free and 
equal"; the modern biologist declares that "all men are 
created bound and unequal" (9, p. 448). What heredity 
gives, upon that must environment and training build the 
superstructure. 

And yet we must not take all these statements in too 
extremely fatalistic a sense. Heredity is not a mysterious 
something always to be feared, but rather a biological ten- 
dency whose laws are to be studied and understood. Hered- 
ity may be good as well as bad, and often many contribu- 
tory factors are essential to the actualization of either. The 



74 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



business of all who have to do with children is to help to 
actualize the best and repress the worst which heredity pre- 
sents in every individual. This is why the physical basis of 
inheritance, the laws of heredity, the degrees to which and 
the means by which environment may affect hereditary 
qualities, are the most important scientific problems which 
engage the thought of man to-day. 

Theories of Variation and Heredity 

Continuity of germ plasm. The theory of continuity of 
germ plasm, proposed by Weismann in 1885, assumes that 
the germ plasm is differentiated from the somatic tissues at 



•Crcai- Great- Grandparents 
Great- Grandparent ts 
Grand.parants 



a 



D 



a 



Q 



& 



"Parents 



£Zny h*an 



La 



m 



4) 



Figure 5. Illustrating the Continuity of 
Germ Plasm 

The larger squares and circles represent the somatoplasm; the smaller 
the germplasm in each case. Continuity from the maternal great- 
greal-grandmother is clearly shown. The diversity of the contribu- 
tion of the early generations is not indicated. 



a very early stage of the embryonic period, and lives there- 
after as a parasite in the body. The germ cells are in no dis- 
coverable way organically related to the somatic tissues, 
and are not essential to the body, although their early 



HEREDITY 75 

extirpation does definitely affect the development of the 
secondary sex characters. The germ cells are, according to 
Weismann, merely the vehicle of transmission of life and 
heritage. The body serves as host and provides the condi- 
tions favorable to their multiplication and development. 
Inheritance is, therefore, not from parent to child, but 
through parent to child, except that perhaps the parent's 
inborn variations may directly pass to his offspring. Inherit- 
ance is from germ plasm to germ plasm to germ plasm con- 
tinuously. To use Hall's figure, it is as though the torch of 
life were passed from parent to child much as a torch might 
be passed from hand to hand in a crowd. The hands that 
for a moment hold the torch in no way affect its qualities. 
Upon the correctness of this view rests the argument of 
Weismann that acquired characters are not inherited. No 
character he holds can be inherited which is not inherent in 
the germ cells. We know of no mechanism by which somatic 
tissues can affect the germ plasm. 

Germinal selection. The laws of variation seem also to 
lie hidden in the germ cells. Darwin's gemmule theory fur- 
nished one possible explanation of germinal variation in the 
supposed effect of acquired changes in the somatic tissues 
upon the germ cells. But as we have just seen, this view 
has not been upheld. Weismann offers the theory of ger- 
minal selection. He postulates the biophor as the lowest 
biological unit of the germ cell. The biophors unite to form 
determinants \ each of which is the basis of a certain somatic 
tissue. The determinants in turn unite to form ids, which 
develop into definite parts of the organism. He then assumes 
a struggle for nutriment within the germ cells themselves 
between these micromeric units. Those which secure more 
favorable conditions of nutrition have an advantage over 
those which find less favorable opportunity for develop- 
ment, and thus arise inborn variations in the resultant 



76 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

organism. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that this and 
the numerous other meristic theories, which we have no 
space here to present, are purely hypothetical. They can 
probably neither be proved nor disproved except by the 
reasonableness with which they work out in practice and 
the degree to which they accord with known facts. Such 
theories offer a reasonable basis for the origin and perpetua- 
tion, from generation to generation, of germ cells, of varia- 
tions in definite directions. Upon them, when they are of 
sufficient importance to have real life or death significance, 
the process of natural selection as suggested by Darwin can 
act. The variations here postulated, it must be noted, are 
due to internal factors, not to external ones. This is Weis- 
mann's chief contention. 

Mendelism. Again, bi-parental inheritance gives occasion 
for variations to arise. No two germ cells are exactly alike 
in potentiality, still less those originating in different indi- 
viduals. In the fusion of diverse cells there is every oppor- 
tunity for the accentuating of some, the repressing of others, 
and the originating of distinctly new traits. The now famous 
monk, Johann Mendel, as early as the sixties, in his classic 
experiments with peas, formulated three important princi- 
ples of inheritance. (1) He postulated the existence of " unit 
characters,'* which are inherited as a whole. (2) That the 
unit characters are of two kinds, — dominant and recessive, 
— which, as the terms indicate, are respectively more and 
less persistent in offspring. (3) That the unit characters are 
segregated and that, except in the first generation, which 
shows only the dominant trait, they tend to appear in the 
offspring in the ratio of three dominant to one recessive. 
These principles have long been used in the perpetuation of 
desirable traits in domestic animals and plants, and are now 
believed to be applicable to man as well. Goddard (32), to 
use a single illustration, in his recent researches finds him- 



HEREDITY 



77 



self impelled unexpectedly toward the view that feeble- 
mindedness is a unit character, and that it seems to be trans- 
mitted in accordance with the Mendelian principles. If 
further investigations confirm this view, the discovery will 
prove to be one of great importance as a guide to methods 
of eliminating undesirable 



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FiGtJEB 6. Illustrating Mendel's 
Law 

Diagram to show the distribution, through 
three generations of garden peas, of dominant 
(D) and recessive (R) traits, tallness and dwarf - 
ness respectively, in accord with Mendel's law, 
when inbreeding or self-fertilization occurs regu- 
larly after the initial cross. 



and conserving desirable 
qualities in the human 
family. 

Mutation. Numerous re- 
cent writers of the Men- 
delian school, of whom de 
Vries is probably the most 
distinguished, have pro- 
posed the theory that large, 
discontinuous variations 
occasionally occur sud- 
denly, and that they are 
from the first fixed and 
heritable. Such variations 
are called mutations; an individual possessing such a varia- 
tion is called a mutant It is believed that environmental 
influences may bring an organism to a state of mutability, 
or that the cumulative effect of such influences may sud- 
denly show itself in a mutation. Just how the germ cells 
are affected by such influences is not clearly shown. Should 
this theory be established, it avoids some of the criticisms 
of Darwin's natural selection of small fluctuating variations, 
especially the objection that the Darwinian process is too 
slow to be reasonable. Unfortunately the experiments on 
which the de Vries theory rests have for the most part 
been with plants, and there is even doubt of their con- 
clusiveness in the realm of plant life. The theory is, how- 
ever, to be seriously reckoned with. 



78 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

Galton's laws. Among the earliest attempts to formulate 
some of the laws of inheritance by statistical studies was 
that of Galton. His own studies in this field led him to the 
statement of two such principles. The best known is his 
Law of Ancestral Inheritance, in which he stated the contri- 
bution of each ancestor as follows: 

One half of inheritance comes from the two parents; 

One fourth of inheritance comes from the four grandparents; 

One eighth of inheritance comes from the eight great-grand- 
parents; 

One sixteenth of inheritance comes from the sixteen great-great- 
grandparents. 

So the contribution diminishes in geometric ratio with 
each succeeding generation. This is, of course, a general 
statement of the average contribution of each ancestor, and 
takes no account of the prepotencies of particular ancestors. 
Galton admits that if a part of the heritage is due to indi- 
vidual peculiarities the contribution of ancestry is dimin- 
ished by so much, but would make the law still apply to the 
ancestral contribution. On this law the contribution inher- 
ited in an unchanged form from remote ancestry is prac- 
tically nil, instead of being, as the recapitulation theory 
would hold, the largest part of the heritage. 

The other principle suggested by Galton is spoken of as 
The Law of Filial Regression. It is a statement of Nature's 
apparent tendency to maintain the type or average. The 
illustration of height is oftenest used. Parents, both of 
whom are unusually tall, as a rule have children who are 
taller than the general average, but shorter than themselves. 
On the other hand, if both parents are excessively short in 
stature, the children will be taller than the parents, but 
shorter than the average. He applied the principle to men- 
tal traits and capacities as well as to physical ones. The 
validity of both principles as originally stated has been 



HEREDITY 79 

questioned. One of the serious criticisms is that they are 
based on questionable statistical material rather than on 
biological considerations. 

Are acquired characters inherited? Conklin (9, p, 503) 
defines an acquired character as "a character, the differen- 
tial cause of which is environmental." It is universally 
agreed that the characters of any adult are partly of this 
class, and partly hereditary. There has been interminable 
controversy in recent years as to whether one may transmit 
the results of his personal achievements as well as his inborn 
traits. A good part of the controversy might have been 
avoided by a more careful definition of terms and a more 
exact statement of the problem. In the first place, it is a 
question of biological inheritance that is at stake, — - not 
social heritage upon which all are agreed. The question is, 
Can somatoplasm affect germ plasm? Can nurture so affect 
nature that its effects will reappear in succeeding genera- 
tions? Can variations which are not inborn, but which have 
been effected during the lifetime of an individual by such 
influences as environment, use or disuse, disease or mutila- 
tion, be transmitted by such individual to his offspring? 
Lamarck and those before him believed in such inheritance; 
in fact, it was made by Lamarck the means of evolution. 
Darwin admitted it, although he differed from Lamarck as 
to the means of such transmission. Galton (1875) was one 
of the first to express serious doubt on the question. Weis- 
mann (1885) and his followers entirely deny such trans- 
mission of acquired characters as we have defined them. 
The controversy still goes on, and it is quite beyond our 
present purpose to detail all the arguments pro and con. 
The hope of solution lies in the many experimental studies 
that have been and are being made. The weight of evidence 
from such studies and the weight of present opinion are 
decidedly against the inheritance of acquired characters. 



30 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

The best we know at present is that all the more stable 
physical traits are derived from inheritance. The number 
of bones, the number and arrangement of muscles, the 
general nature and location of the parts and organs, are 
determined by the nature of germ cells. Such secondary 
characters as color of eyes, skin, and hair, shape of head, 
nose, facial angle, height, proportion, and even such matters 
as peculiar postures and gaits and the like, which are due to 
deep-seated physical causes, belong also to heritage. Gen- 
eral mental capacity, and the aptitude for particular mental 
accomplishments, are undoubtedly also hereditary. Mental 
and moral characters appear to behave as do physical ones, 
although the basis for their heritability is much less clear. 
Davenport (18) presents evidence of the inheritance of a 
long list of physical defects, such as deaf -mutism, heart and 
eye defects, polydactylism, and many others. 

To the acquired characters of a given individual belong 
malformations of parts or organs due to disease or accident, 
loss of parts, exceptional strength of arm, dexterity of hand, 
skill of eye, artistic, linguistic, and similar attainments, as 
well as diseases due to pathogenic germs, such as the bacillus 
tuberculosis. 

It is generally agreed that children and grandchildren 
may inherit those specific qualities of mind and body which 
make for high attainment in music, art, mathematics, or 
mechanics. It is denied that the cultivation of such capaci- 
ties in high degree by the father or grandfather will make the 
offspring any more likely, or the entire neglect to cultivate 
them make them any less able, than they otherwise would 
have been to achieve distinction in them. Children do not 
learn to read and write any more readily because their 
ancestry has developed these attainments in high degree 
for many generations. Children of equal native capacity 
do not acquire skill in these arts any less rapidly because 



HEREDITY 81 

their ancestry has been illiterate for generations. As Conklin 
(9, p. 339) puts it, "wooden legs do not run in families, but 
wooden heads do." The former are acquired characters, the 
latter are inborn ones. 

Weismann's rather extreme statement of the isolation of 
germ plasm has undergone some revision as the result of 
recent experiments. It is now believed that the somatic and 
germ cells are together subject to certain factors that cause 
changes in each. It is even conceivable that conditions aris- 
ing in somatic tissues from the effects of glandular secretions 
during states of intense emotion, — such as grief, rage, or 
jealousy, — those resulting from the use of alcohol and nar- 
cotics, and from such toxins as those of fatigue, may, 
through the blood, cause changes in the germ cells. This, 
however, is something quite different from what is com- 
monly meant by an acquired character. If such effects as 
those just mentioned should be clearly demonstrated, we 
should still need proof of their transmission. Further than 
that, they are likely to be very general and non-specific in 
character, and still more certainly non-ideational. Admis- 
sion of such general changes in germ cells from environ- 
mental causes does not establish the inheritance of specific 
acquired characters. There is no conclusive evidence that 
such characters are inherited; there is much evidence that 
they are not. 

Heredity versus environment. Which is more important 
in the determination of the physical, mental, and moral 
qualities of the human being, — heredity or environment? 
In a sense the question is not a proper one, for both are very 
important. For that very reason the question will continue 
to be asked until we succeed in estimating, with more accu- 
racy than we can now, the proportionate part of each. For 
the present one should keep an open mind on the question. 
All possible qualities of the individual are potential in his 



82 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

inheritance, but environment and training must continue 
to actualize or suppress them. The best environment cannot 
add to hereditary potentialities nor develop capacities that 
do not exist. "You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's 
ear." "Who by taking thought can add a cubit to his 
stature ?" On the other hand, hereditary qualities often 
resist the influence of the " best " and the " worst " in environ- 
ment. The two factors are so inextricably interdependent 
that isolation of either for the study of its relative effect is 
well-nigh impossible. The problem is the more difficult, too, 
since the heredity of no two persons, not even twins, is 
exactly alike. Neither is an environment ever subjectively 
or actually the same for any two individuals. 

The heritability of acquired characters also has its bear- 
ing upon this problem. If acquired characters could be 
proved to be hereditary, the relative importance of environ- 
ment would be decidedly enhanced. If such characters are 
non-heritable, the importance of heredity is much increased. 
Until this question has been settled, the relative importance 
of heredity and environment must also remain an open ques- 
tion. It is debatable whether we should be better or worse 
off if acquired characters were certainly transmissible. If 
the noblest and best of intentions could always be depended 
upon, and if an infallibility of judgment could be presupposed 
among the masses of men, the possibility of inheritance of 
acquired characters would open the door to rapid improve- 
ment of the species. Lacking these two conditions, it opens 
the door to rapid degeneration also. As matters stand, 
Weismann's theory permits the greater plasticity for future 
generations. It is also true that on his theory succeeding 
generations are more immune from the effects of vice, im- 
morality of parents, effects of alcoholism, of bad social 
milieu and the like. 

Some scientific studies of human heredity. (1) Francis 



HEREDITY 83 

Galton, the illustrious cousin of Charles Darwin and the 
founder of the Galton Eugenics Laboratory, was the first 
to make serious study of human heredity. His earliest study 
comprised the examination of the careers of the relatives 
of a large number of eminent statesmen, scientists, literary 
men, artists, musicians, and several other classes. His aim 
was to discover whether there were among the relatives of 
these persons a larger relative number of persons of eminence 
than among average men. In spite of several valid criticisms 
of his method, — a resume of them is given by Sandiford 
(52, p. 21), — his conclusions, which have been widely 
quoted, are deserving of serious consideration. He found 
the proportion of eminent persons among the relatives of 
his chosen group far greater than among those of average 
men. Later studies of his show that parents of exceptional 
ability produce children of similar ability much oftener than 
do parents of ordinary ability. Galton (29) expresses him- 
self as most unqualifiedly opposed to the doctrine that all 
are created equal (p. 14). With respect to literary and 
artistic eminence he concludes that men with high native 
ability easily rise above obstacles, while all the social advan- 
tages possible do not enable the poorly endowed to attain 
eminence (p. 43). "I feel convinced," he says again, "that 
no man can achieve a very high reputation without being 
gifted with very high abilities " (p. 49). Those who argue 
that environment has more to do with the making of men 
than heredity find little help from Galton's studies. His 
reputation as an eminent and fair-minded scientist gives 
weight to his conviction that heredity is much the stronger 
factor. 

{2) Woods 9 s study of royal families. Woods (67) made an 
exhaustive study of inheritance among eight hundred and 
thirty-two members representative of all the important 
royal families of Europe. His investigation involved esti* 



84 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

mates of mental and moral qualities, as well as physical 
ones. His family histories show numerous instances of 
striking persistence of certain physical traits, numerous 
sases of alternative inheritance, some of persistence of men- 
tal defect through several generations, others of superior 
ability, and still others of mediocrity apparently illustrative 
of Mendelian principles. A few royal families have degen- 
erated, but others have steadily improved. One factor in 
such improvement is no doubt the intermarriage of the royal 
families with strong, virile personalities who made their 
way to distinction through native capacity. Among the 
eight hundred and thirty-two persons are twenty-five world 
geniuses, which, as Hall (37, vol. 1, p. 438) suggests, "per- 
haps no other eight hundred random names of a class would 
yield." Woods does not find that luxury, consanguineous 
marriages, primogeniture, exalted position, nor, on the 
other hand, political turmoil or adverse conditions, have as 
a rule proved unfavorable to the inheritance of ability. If 
they have been unfavorable, it is in the moral rather than 
in the physical or mental realm. Even here he finds that 
"there is a very distinct correlation in royalty between 
mental and moral qualities" (67, p. 263). 

His conclusions are much like those of Galton. "The up- 
shot of it all is, that as regards intellectual life, environment 
is a totally inadequate explanation." On the other hand, 
"heredity not only explains all (or at least ninety per cent) 
of the intellectual side of character in practically every 
instance, but does so best when questions of environment 
are left out of the discussion" (p. 286). As to moral quali- 
ties, "the results obtained speak no less clearly and un- 
equivocally for heredity as the major cause" although, he 
adds, "we must admit that thus far we cannot separate 
heredity from environment in the formation of moral quali- 
ties" (p. 287). In another connection he comes out still 



HEREDITY 85 

more strongly in the expression of his conviction that 
heredity is "almost the entire cause for the mental achieve* 
ments of these men and women, and that environment 01 
free will must consequently play very minor roles" (p. 283). 
One other group of inferences of Woods's are of eugenic 
import. They are those based on Galton's law of ancestral 
heredity. The probabilities are that "quality possessed by 
entire ancestry is almost sure to appear. Quality possessed 
by one parent and half the ancestry is likely to appear, with 
almost equal force, in one out of every two descendants. 
Quality possessed by one parent only, and not present in 
the ancestry, has one chance in about four for its appearance 
in progeny. Quality not possessed by either parent, but 
present in all the grandparents and most of the remaining 
ancestry, would also have about one chance in two for its 
appearance in one of the children. If only one of the grand- 
parents possessed the quality in question, then the chances 
of its appearance in any one of the grandchildren of this 
ancestor would be about one chance in sixteen" (p. 298). 

(3) Thorndike's study of twins. Thorndike's measurements 
of fifty pairs of twins in the schools of New York City, by 
means of certain objective tests, led to the conclusion that 
the physical and mental resemblances between them were 
always greater than those between other children of the 
same family, and the differences between them and non- 
fraternal pairs of "the same age, locality, and educational 
system, are due, to at least nine tenths of their amount, to 
original nature" (60). 

(4) CattelVs study of scientific men. Cattell (7), after a 
method somewhat similar to Galton's, but less subject to 
criticism because of more careful control of sources of error, 
made a valuable study of one thousand American men of 
science to obtain some idea of the factors which contributed 
to their eminence. His conclusions are that " the main 



86 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

factors in producing scientific ability seem to be density 
of population, wealth, opportunity, institutions, and social 
traditions and ideals. All these may be ultimately due to 
race, but, given the existing race, the scientific productivity 
of the nation can be increased in quantity, though not in 
quality, almost to the extent we wish to increase it." It will 
be seen that he makes environmental factors much more 
significant than those from whom we have been quoting. 
He admits, however, that some of his data suggest that for 
high quality of performance men of science are born such. 

(5) Healy's study of juveniles. Healy (38, p. 781), from an 
extended and careful study of one thousand juvenile recidi- 
vists, finds " no reason for maintaining any general notion 
that there is a class properly designated born criminals. ,, 
This is contrary to the view of Lombroso and the Italian 
school of criminologists, who many years ago announced 
the discovery of a "criminal type." Goddard (32), Daven- 
port (18), and others seem to have established, by a statisti- 
cal and personal study of family histories to the number of 
several hundred, that feeble-mindedness is due to heredity 
primarily in perhaps sixty-five per cent of the cases. We 
shall have more to say of the relation of heredity to crime 
in a later chapter. 

(6) The Edwards- Tuttle family. Another important group 
of studies illustrate the way in which the characteristic 
traits of a single individual may leave their stamp upon 
hundreds of individuals in successive generations and play 
an exceedingly important role in the history of the nation. 
On the one hand, the famous Edwards-Tuttle family (66) 
of Connecticut, of whose descendants 1394 were identified 
in 1900, has made a contribution of inestimable value to the 
country. The members of this family have again and again 
occupied positions of prominence and trust of almost every 
sort from President of the United States to managers of 



HEREDITY 87 

great industrial enterprises. No member of the family is 
known to have been convicted of crime. Similarly the Lee 
family of Virginia has made a notable contribution, among 
many others especially of leading statesmen and military 
men. The Preston family of Kentucky has furnished gov- 
ernors, senators, congressmen, college presidents, eminent 
divines, and many other persons whose service to the coun- 
try has been notable. 

(7) The Jukes. In contrast with these the famous 
"Jukes" (24) family of New York, of which "Max" was 
the founder, is illustrative of the opposite extreme. To the 
characteristics of the wife of one of the sons of "Max 
Jukes," known in the literature as " Margaret, the mother 
of criminals," is perhaps due the unending contribution of 
crime, pauperism, disease, viciousness, and immorality 
which is about the sole contribution of the family to the 
country. Of 540 individuals whose histories were known in 
1877, 310 had spent on the aggregate 2300 years in alms- 
houses, 440 were physical wrecks, 130 were convicted crim- 
inals, and over half the women were prostitutes. None had 
ever held office or served the country in a patriotic way, and 
up to that year the family had cost the State more than 
a million and a quarter dollars. The " Ishmaelites " of 
Indiana, a family of natural paupers and petty thieves, 
present only a slightly less striking example of what a bad 
heritage uncontrolled may leave in its wake. The Eugenics 
Laboratory at Cold Springs Harbor, Long Island, has re- 
cently published several similar family histories, and is pre- 
paring others. 

(8) The Kallikak families. Perhaps the most striking and 
interesting "experiment in human breeding" is that of the 
"Kallikak" families, whose record Goddard has recently 
published (31). In this record we have a single paternal 
head of two families; one, the 496 descendants of "Martin 



88 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

Kallikak" and his wife, both of good ancestry; the other, the 
480 descendants of the same father and a feeble-minded girl. 
All of the former were of normal mentality except two, and 
these were not feeble-minded. Of the latter, 143 were dis- 
tinctly feeble-minded, many others were less than mediocre, 
and none were of exceptional ability. In conclusion God- 
dard (31), says, "the fact that the descendants of both the 
normal and the feeble-minded mother have been traced and 
studied in every conceivable environment, and that the 
respective strains have always been true to type, tends to 
confirm the belief that heredity has been the determining 
factor in the formation of their respective characters." 

From these very brief statements of conclusions of typical 
researches it must be evident that we have here a commend- 
able point of attack upon the intricate problem of human 
heredity, which supplements the bio-chemical and physical 
studies which we earlier reviewed. Such conflicting views 
as we have presented are to be harmonized, if at all, by such 
studies. In some respects it seems clear already that our 
efforts at education, social service, and moral reform have 
until recently entirely too much neglected the hereditary 
factor. The issue of such researches as those from which 
we have quoted, and of many others that are being, and 
that will be, made, should be a much more intelligent han- 
dling of children in schools, institutions, juvenile courts, and 
in their homes. The social problems of crime, inefficiency, 
drunkenness, feeble-mindedness, pauperism, and many 
others will find more effective remedy when the relation of 
inheritance to them is better understood and more seriously 
taken into consideration. 

Social heredity. Biological or organic heredity must not 
be confused with social heredity, as is often done. Children 
are born with a, biological heritage; they are born into a 
social one. The biological heritage is passed from parent to 



HEREDITY 89 

child through the germ plasm; social heritage is acquired 
anew by each generation. Biological heredity is basal; social 
heritage is extraneous and more or less artificial. Social 
heritage is grafted upon what biological heredity gives. If 
the doctrine that acquired characters are not inherited is 
accepted, the necessity of social control of parentage, as 
proposed by eugenics, becomes a matter of most vital con- 
cern as the only possible means of progressive race improve- 
ment. Social heredity, however, is a partial offset to the 
defects of biological heritage, thanks to the plasticity of the 
human organism. 

The vast, highly organized, exceedingly complex, and 
rapidly increasing social heritage of manners, customs, 
traditions, institutions, skill, technique, moral codes, and 
ethical ideals impresses itself early and late upon the grow- 
ing child, so that he becomes "the heir to all the ages" as 
he falls heir to the material possessions of his parents. If, 
then, one may not transmit through physical heredity the 
results of his own accomplishments and those of the race, 
he may, nevertheless, surround his children from the begin- 
ning of their lives with all the influences which have by 
experience been found helpful in passing on the social 
heritage. Our social heritage of knowledge of the laws of 
health, and of the acquired skill and insight of generations 
of physicians, may measurably repair some of the defects 
of physical inheritance. The right sort of social heritage 
may minimize the tremendous handicap of the feeble- 
minded, though it cannot make him less a menace to the 
race. Muscular and technical skill are no longer attained by 
chance or trial-and-error methods. We have a rich social 
heritage of means and methods for their speedy attainment. 
Children inherit physical and mental capacities; social hered 
ity determines the use to which they shall be put. Children 
are born with innate tendencies to moral and religious 



90 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

responses, but their moral codes and their religious beliefs 
and practices are almost wholly a social heritage. The sum 
total of what we call civilization — that is the social herit- 
age. Its greatest vehicle is that most distinctive human 
capacity — speech. Of it we shall have more to say in a 
later chapter. Education and training are nothing but 
means of rapidly inducting children into their social herit- 
age. We proceed on the assumption that the possession of 
the most superior endowment is no guarantee that the best 
results of social inheritance will be attained unaided. We 
develop educational agencies. It would be well also to 
remember that the highest social heritage cannot be super- 
imposed upon the lowest biological inheritance. We should 
more carefully adapt our educational institutions to the 
capacities of the learners, bearing in mind that "men are 
born bound and unequal." 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. What is heredity? 

2. What is the physical basis of heredity, and how is it determined? 

3. What is meant by the continuity of germ plasm? 

4. What is meant by saying that heredity is fundamental? 

5. If Mendel's law holds for the human family, what practical bearing 
can the fact have? Illustrate. 

6. Give illustrations of the application of Galton's laws other than those 
of the text. 

7. What difference does it make whether acquired characters are in- 
herited or not? 

8. Distinguish between traits that are heritable and those that are not. 
Illustrate. 

9. Make the most careful distinction you can between the part played 
by heredity and environment respectively in the making of an indi- 
vidual. 

10. What are the chief results attained so far in the study of human 
heredity? 

11. Distinguish clearly between biological and social heredity. 

12. Can social heredity make good the defects of biological inheritance? 

13. Make the fullest possible investigation and record of your own family 



HEREDITY 91 

history. Does it explain any of your own traits and capacities? 
Blanks for such record can be had from the Eugenics Laboratory, 
Cold Springs Harbor, Long Island, New York. 



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37. Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. (1911.) 2 vols., 710 pp. and 714 pp. 

38. Healy, W. The Individual Delinquent. (1915.) 830 pp. 

39. Jewett, F. J. The Next Generation. (1914.) 235 pp. 

*40. Jordan, D. S. Footnotes to Evolution. (1898.) Especially chapters 5, 
6, 10 and 11. 

41. King, I. The Psychology of Child Development (1903), pp. 156-64. 

Discusses the culture epoch theory. 

42. Locy, W. A. Biology and its Makers. (1908.) 469 pp. 

43. Loeb, J. Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psy- 

chology. (1900.) Chap. 14, "The Central Nervous System and 
Heredity," pp. 201-12. 
*44. Parmelee, M. The Science of Human Behavior. (1913.) Especially 
pp. 7-75. (Bibliography.) 

45. Partridge, G. E. Genetic Philosophy of Education (1912), pp. 14-31. 

(Bibliographies, pp. 19 and 31. Epitome of Hall's writings.) 

46. Prentiss, C. W. Textbook of Embryology. (1915.) 400 pp. 

47. Punnett, R. C. Mendelism. (1911.) 192 pp. 

48. Pyle, W. H. The Outlines of Educational Psychology (1912), pp. 

24-33. 

49. Richards, Mrs. E. H. Euthenics. (1910.) 162 pp. 

50. Romanes, G. J. An Examination of Weismannism. (1899.) 215 pp. 

51. Saleeby, C. W. Parenthood and Race Culture (1909), pp. 112-36. 

(Annotated bibliography.) 

52. Sandiford, P. The Mental and Physical Life of School Children (1913), 

pp. 1-25. (Bibliography.) 

53. Schmucker, S. C. The Meaning of Evolution. (1913.) 298 pp. 

54. Stratton, G. M. Experimental Psychology and Culture (1903), pp. 

262-94. 

55. Seward, A. C, Editor. Darwin and Modern Science. (1909.) 595 pp. 
*56. Thompson, J. A. Heredity. (1907.) 605 pp. (Exhaustive bibliography.) 



HEREDITY ' 93 

57. Thompson, J. A. Darwinism and Human Life (1910), pp. 129-77. 
*58. Thompson, J. A., and Geddes, P. Evolution. (1911.) 256 pp. (Anno- 
tated bibliography.) 
59. Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology. Vol. 1. The Original 

Nature of Man. (1913.) 327 pp. 
50. Thorndike, E. L. "Measurement of Twins"; in Col. Univ. Cont. to 

Phil, and Psych., vol. 13, no. 3. 64 pp. 
31. Tyler, J. M. Growth and Education (1907), pp. 25-62. (Bibliography.) 
«2. Tyler, J. M. Man in the Light of Evolution (1908), pp. 223-27. 
*63. Walker, C. E. Hereditary Characters and their Modes of Transmission. 

(1910.) 239 pp. 
"64. Walter, H. E. Genetics. (1913.) 272 pp. 

65. Weismann, A. The Germ-Plasm. (1893.) 468 pp. 

66. Winship, A. E. Jukes-Edwards: A Study of Education and Heredity. 

(1900.) 88 pp. 

67. Woods, F. A. Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty. (1906.) 312 pp. 



CHAPTER V 

NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 

The problems of human behavior. The sum total of all 
responses made by an organism to the stimuli from its 
environment has come recently to be spoken of by compara- 
tive biologists and psychologists as its behavior. The term 
is inclusive of mental as well as physical and physiological 
activities. In this there is the advantage of an implied recog- 
nition of the fact of the unity of all life processes, for what- 
ever the ultimate decision may be as to the kind of relation- 
ship existing between mind and body, the fact of a relation- 
ship is not to be denied. Life is one, and is to be understood 
only when studied as a biological unity. Approaching the 
study of behavior from the biological point of view it is 
necessary to consider such problems as its chemo-physicul 
basis, its anatomical and physiological correlates, its nature, 
its genesis, the types into which it falls, and their relation- 
ships and functions. In this chapter we undertake a very 
brief consideration of these problems. 

The chemo-physical basis of behavior. All organic life 
responds to external influences acting upon it. Even the 
amoeba has been observed by Jennings and others to go 
through quite a complex series of related movements in 
response to stimuli of certain kinds. Such responses in the 
lowest forms of animal life have their basis in the intrinsic 
mobility and plasticity of organic matter itself. We cannot 
here discuss in detail the chemical and physical properties 
which explain the irritability of organic matter, but must 
assume them as the basis of all behavior as well as the basis 
of organic evolution. Without these qualities matter re- 
mains inert and lifeless. 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 95 

Genetically speaking, the simplest form of behavior is a 
gross chemo-physical response of an organism to some sort 
of stimulus. This is the protean forerunner of all behavior. 
Biologists have given it the name tropism, a term derived 
from a Greek word meaning "to turn." The term is most 
properly used to name those purely mechanical responses 
of simple plant and animal forms by means of which an 
organism, stimulated from without, orientates itself with 
relation to the stimulus by either moving toward or away 
from the source of stimulation. Such responses are not 
dependent upon the existence of any specialized structures 
for their execution, still less upon the presence of any ner- 
vous elements. The intrinsic irritability of the matter com- 
posing the entire organism is apparently their sole basis. 
Extensive experimentation among biologists has pretty 
definitely determined the external forces which cause such 
responses. Davenport, as quoted by Parmelee (34, p. 85), 
says, "these may be grouped into eight categories, deter- 
mined largely by convenience: namely, (1) chemical sub- 
stances; (2) water; (3) density of medium; (4) molar agents; 
(5) gravity; (6) electricity; (7) light; and (8) heat." Thus, 
depending upon the nature of the exciting cause, we have 
chemo-trojrism — orientation with respect to chemical stimu- 
lation; heliotropism — orientation with respect to the light 
of the sun; geotropism — orientation with respect to the 
earth; thermotropism — reaction to differences in heat inten- 
sity, etc. Speaking in evolutionary terms it may be said 
that the primitive sensitivity and irritability of organic 
matter shown in responses to such stimuli as these form 
the basis of all behavior. 

The structural basis of behavior. The necessity of re- 
sponding to such varied influences as those just mentioned 
made advantageous the development of specialized struc- 
tures for this purpose. So it seems probable that changes in 



96 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

both structure and behavior have gone on hand in hand 
with the course of biological evolution. A study of existing 
animal forms indicates that the organic processes such as 
metabolism, respiration, circulation, secretion, excretion, 
and reproduction, together with the specialized structures 
for carrying them out, were among the first to evolve. How 
this evolution took place we need not here consider, since 
the theories concerning it have been considered in the pre- 
ceding chapter. It is sufficient to say that single-celled 
organisms, by multiplication and accretion of cells differ- 
entiated in structure and specialized in function, have 
evolved into multicellular organisms. Organless organisms 
capable only of tropic responses of a chemo-physical sort 
have been succeeded by animals with specialized organs, 
structures, and parts, which make much more refined and 
specialized responses possible. Efficiency and economy of 
response have been secured by distribution of functions to 
organs and structures so specialized as to receive and act 
upon stimuli of only one sort while still maintaining rela- 
tionship with all other parts. 

Among the differentiations of structure and function the 
most significant, especially in relation to higher types of 
behavior, is the nervous system, with the neuron as its ele- 
mental unit. Apart from the vital processes which still are, 
even in the highest forms, somewhat independent of the 
nervous system, the behavior of higher organisms, and 
especially that of man, has come to be very definitely condi- 
tioned by this master structure. Even the vital processes 
are integrated together, unified and coordinated by the ner- 
vous system. For example, circulation, while a function 
of the heart, arteries, veins, and capillaries, — structures 
differentiated and adapted to this definite end, — is, 
through the activity of the nervous system, very definitely 
effected by other conditions in the organism. The same is 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 97 

true of the other vital processes to such an extent that 
changes in their functioning become definite indications of 
conditions in the organism as a whole. In the nervous struc- 
tures we find the key to the higher action system. These 
structures are of three related groups, with three distinct 
functions. There are end organs for the reception of exter- 
nal stimuli, and afferent fibers to carry them inward — the 
receiving mechanism; there are central cells and association 
fibers for the interrelating of sensory stimuli, and for the 
excitation of motor neurons — the central mechanism; and 
there are efferent fibers and terminal motor neurons or 
axones in the muscles for the transmission of impulses from 
the central nervous system to the muscles, which are the 
specialized organs concerned with visible behavior. 

With all animals that have nervous systems an external 
stimulus tends to involve all three of these elements, as 
well as the muscles, although the extent to which the ner- 
vous system is involved varies widely with different types 
of response. The vital processes are also affected in instinc- 
tive responses especially. The extent to which and the way 
in which physiological and neural processes are involved 
are among the most important means of differentiation of 
the types of behavior. With these very general statements 
regarding the bases of behavior, let us turn to illustration 
and classification of its various types as found in man. 

The classes of human behavior. It is a matter of common 
observation that some responses are well made without 
training; others are poorly made after a long period of train- 
ing. The infant breathes, digests his food, and his veins pul- 
sate as the blood courses through them, driven by the 
rhythmic beating of his heart, as soon as he is born, and he 
neither wills it so nor can he will it otherwise. He takes his 
food from the beginning without learning how, his hands 
open and shut, his limbs move, his eyes close in the presence 



08 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

of a bright light almost as soon as he is born, and yet he 
knows not why nor how. Later, after a slow and difficult 
series of efforts, not even begun for months, he learns to 
speak and to walk. He responds characteristically in specific 
and predetermined ways to some situations with the fear 
reactions; to others with those of anger. Still later he learns 
to restrain and to modify some of these tendencies, and to 
initiate others quite at variance from his original tendencies. 
His responses are quite diversified and of varying complexity 
and yet all have something in common and all together 
constitute what we term in general his behavior. In the 
interest of clearness, however, it is necessary to differentiate 
among these varied responses certain classes, and to define 
them as clearly as possible. 

In general the behavior of human beings is of two main 
types, the non-learned and the learned; but within the first 
class it is customary to speak of the organic reflexes (au- 
tomatic acts), the reflexes proper, and the instincts; within 
the latter, of habits and voluntary acts. In this chapter we 
are to be concerned wholly with the non-learned types, and 
especially with the instincts. Let us examine the responses 
of these types a little more closely, and give, specific illus- 
trations of each. 

First, we have such processes as those of respiration, cir- 
culation, digestion, secretion, and excretion, which once set 
in operation continue uninterruptedly throughout life, and 
largely independent, except for minor fluctuations, of any 
influences other than those which make for healthful con* 
ditions of the organism as a whole. These organic processes 
which not only do not have to be learned, but which an 
from the beginning practically serviceable and relatively 
perfect, care for the vital needs of the organism and are best 
termed the organic reflexes (sometimes spoken of as auto- 
matic acts). Most of the activities of this class are rhythmlr 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 99 

cal, have their stimuli within the organism itself, and make 
for the healthful activity of the entire organism. Second, 
we have such acts as sneezing, winking, coughing, the knee 
jerk, the adjustment of the ciliary muscle of the eye, and 
other simple responses of parts of the organism to simple 
stimuli external to the organism. These, too, are non- 
learned responses which are practically serviceable from 
the first and uniform throughout life, and are commonly 
called reflexes. Third, such complex activities as crying, 
recoiling from injury or threatened injury, fighting, feeding, 
curiosity, and the like, are quite as characteristically per- 
formed without learning as those of the two preceding types, 
and yet differ from them sufficiently in structural basis, in 
the nature of their stimuli, and in complexity to deserve to 
be differentiated from their prototypes. It is customary to 
speak of them as instincts, or instinctive acts. Fourth, there 
are other much more complex acts and processes, such as 
walking, talking, acquisitiveness, play, self-abasement, con- 
structiveness, destructiveness, and many others, which are 
not so easily placed and yet are unquestionably in large 
part non-learned tendencies. Many of them are complexes 
of several instincts operating simultaneously, or of instincts 
and habits, so that it seems desirable to speak of those which 
do not properly fall into the preceding classes as activities 
with an instinctive basis. 

It is well to admit that there is no hard-and-fast line of 
demarcation between reflexes and instincts, and that among 
the acts or processes properly classed as one or the other 
there are such close resemblances as to make our concept 
of either class difficult to perfect. It is the existence of 
genetic relationships between them that has made all 
attempts at definition more or less unsatisfactory. We be* 
lieve that much time and effort have been spent in quibbling 
over definition and differentiation of the different types of 



100 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

non-learned behavior that might better have been spent in 
careful study of the responses themselves and their place 
and function in human life. In spite of this conviction, since 
a part of our knowledge of human behavior is to be gained 
through reading and since language is the tool of our think- 
ing, we must throughout our discussion hold to as definite 
and uniform a connotation for these terms as possible. The 
chief difficulty that confronts us is the extremely loose 
usage of the terms instinct and instinctive in the literature. 
We shall use these terms in a much more restricted sense 
than most of the writers whose works are listed in our bibli- 
ographies, so that it will be necessary for us to define some- 
what more closely our concepts of them. 

Upon the nature of reflexes there is little disagreement. 
They are relatively simple, direct, practically uniform, and 
non-voluntary responses of the sensory-motor type. They 
result from a simple external stimulation of an inborn ner- 
vous reaction arc. They do not involve the higher cerebral 
centers for their performance, and therefore need not arouse 
consciousness even after they have been executed. Their 
function is simple, restricted, and immediate. With instincts 
the case is not so simple, and further analysis is needed. 

The nature of instinct. In a very general way it may be 
said that an instinct is: (1) an inborn tendency, with its 
basis in the neuro-muscular system; (2) that it involves some 
form of activity; (3) that connected with it there is usually 
some emotion; and (4) that the response is essentially uni- 
form and usually typical for all members of a species. Upon 
these characteristics of instinct there is pretty general agree- 
ment. When one goes much beyond this simple statement 
there begins to be much difference of opinion. 

Biologists, with their interest in the dynamics of living 
matter and the causes and genesis of behavior, stress the 
movement aspect of instincts and tend to differentiate them 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 101 

from other types of response in neuro-muscular terms chiefly. 
Psychologists, on the other hand, with natural bias toward 
interest in the mental elements in any activity, tend to 
emphasize in their definitions the emotional and ideational 
processes involved. There is also strong tendency to empha- 
size their purposeful character. As a result of this difference 
we have definitions, on the one hand, which tend to restrict 
the term instinct to a very few responses, and on the other 
those which admit an almost unlimited number. It seems 
wise to avoid either extreme, and there is now a strong ten- 
dency toward acceptance of middle ground in this matter. 
For extreme views one may compare the list of instincts 
admitted by Loeb on the one hand and James on the other. 
We shall make no attempt to formulate an original defini- 
tion of instinct, but shall leave the matter after quoting two 
of the best recent ones. Instinct, says McDougall (27, p. 29), 
is "an inherited or innate psycho-physical disposition which 
determines its possessor to perceive, and pay attention to, 
objects of a certain class, to experience an emotional excite- 
ment of a particular quality upon perceiving such an object, 
and to act in regard to it in a particular manner, or, at least, 
to experience an impulse to such action." McDougall insists 
upon a cognitive, an affective, and a conative aspect in every 
instinct, and it will be noted that his definition is rather 
"heavily weighted with psychological implications." Par- 
melee, whose criticism the quoted words indicate, presents 
a biological definition which he holds is accurate and suffi- 
ciently detailed to distinguish instincts from other types of 
behavior, in the following words: "An instinct is an in- 
herited combination of reflexes which have been integrated 
by the central nervous system so as to cause an external 
activity of the organism which usually characterizes a whole 
species and is usually adaptive" (34, p. 226). In many- 
ways his definition is an excellent one. The reader who wiU 



102 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

follow the defense made for his definition by either of these 
writers can hardly fail to get a good working knowledge of 
the term instinct in its best present connotation. 

The stimuli which arouse instincts. McDougall's (27, pp. 
31 ff .) analysis of the types of stimuli which evoke instinctive 
responses throws further light on the nature of these inborn 
tendencies, as well as upon their origin. First, there are 
many specific excitants of instincts varying characteristically 
with the species. Hall's (16) study of fears revealed many 
specific causes in early infancy, such as large animals, big 
teeth or eyes, contact with fur, etc. The young kitten given 
a ball or other small object runs after it and pounces upon it 
in characteristic cat fashion. Rabbits run from dogs or hide 
under available cover, true to the tendencies of their ances- 
try; cats stand and give battle, or climb a tree; the horse if 
cornered defends himself by kicking; each responds to the 
same situation — attacking dog — in suitable and charac- 
teristic fashion. 

Second, certain non-specific situations tend always to 
provoke some sort of instinctive reaction. Notable among 
them are darkness and obscureness, novelty or strangeness, 
intensity of stimuli (bright lights or colors, loud noises, or, 
on the other hand, faint lights, sounds, colors, or tactile 
stimuli), objects in the periphery of vision, suddenness of 
appearance and movement. 

Third, there is a large group of secondary situations which 
arouse instincts through their similarity to primary ones. 
These are not lacking with higher animals in general, but 
are peculiarly characteristic of man. They arise out of 
experience and complications of ideational with sensory ele- 
ments. The horse jumps each time he passes the point in the 
road where once a dog startled him. Many wild animals 
fear a man with a gun that pay little attention to one 
without. Hall (15, vol. 2, p. 370) calls attention to the 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 103 

decrease in fear of large animals, and the increase of fear of 
bugs, spiders, and all small creepy things in general at adoles- 
cence. Physical fears also decrease and social ones increase 
at this time. Fear of disease, of bombs, of live wires, of 
automobiles, and of offenses against social conventions come 
to have characteristic instinctive responses totally lacking 
before experience and ideation call them forth. 

Fourth, there are all sorts of complications of instinctive 
/esponses due to the overlapping and blending of two or 
more conflicting tendencies operating at the same time. 
Thus arise our complex emotions, such as anxiety, jealousy, 
reproach, and the like. A good illustration is that of the 
anxious mother whose small son has disobeyed her injunc- 
tion not to leave the yard and who is now nowhere to be 
found. Here fear, love, displeasure — the whole group of 
emotions centering in the maternal instinct — complicate 
the response and leave both it and the dominant emotion 
much in doubt, or cause a rapid alternation of responses 
and their characteristic emotions. 

All these tendencies reveal the inborn nature of the action 
systems involved, but the later ones show, especially with 
man, an increasing mental element in instinctive responses 
and a strong tendency to radical changes both in the objects 
naturally exciting instincts and in the nature of the responses 
themselves. The relation of this fact to habit formation and 
to the evolution of various types of intelligent behavior will 
be further developed in several of our later discussions. 

Characteristics of human instincts. Instincts are inborn 
tendencies, and yet with all higher animals, and especially 
with man, many of them are not present at birth. The new- 
born infant has just those instincts which are necessary, 
and those which the psycho-physical organism he possesses 
at the time makes possible. These are chiefly those which 
are self -preservative in function and those which make foi 



104 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

development. Among the best examples are the instinctive 
cries by means of which the needs of the child are made 
known to his mother, the already well-coordinated muscular 
reactions by means of which he is able to take his food, and 
the general tendency to make movements which furnish the 
raw material of later habits and voluntary acts. As growth 
continues, as developments due to the activity of the few 
instincts present at first take place, as appropriate stimuli 
are met with, other instincts arise. 

The recapitulation theory holds that the order of ac- 
quirement in the individual is that in which they were 
acquired by the race. This view in its extreme form cannot 
be longer held. There are too many omissions and too many 
inversions of what must have been the phyletic order. The 
theory neglects to take account of such facts as that the 
infant is physically and physiologically incapable of some 
of the instinctive responses that must have been acquired 
very early by the race. In spite of its defects, this theory has 
been exceedingly suggestive and has been the stimulus of 
many researches, to which in large measure we owe the dis- 
covery of the fact that the order of rise and development of 
innate tendencies is fairly definite and uniform for different 
members of the race. 

Whatever the cause may be, each instinct has its nascent 
period at a time when need, physical and physiological con- 
dition, and appropriate stimulation combine to call it forth. 
Nature has her own time. For a few instincts, such as that 
of sex, this time does not come until physical and physio- 
logical maturity are entering their last stage of development. 
Walking and talking have marked instinctive bases, and 
yet it is useless to try to make the infant of two months 
walk or talk. Even appropriate stimuli fail to evoke instinc- 
tive responses before their time. The psycho-physical basis 
for many responses requires a long period of maturing. At 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 105 

eighteen months the average child is both walking and talk- 
ing without other help than opportunity. So it is with all 
but a few of the most necessary instincts and capacities. 

Some instincts are transitory, and if appropriate exercise 
is not afforded them at or near the nascent period they tend 
to weaken or disappear altogether. Thus, tendencies to 
play, to be curious, to fear, to desire companionship, and 
many others which have an unquestioned instinctive basis, 
may all be decidedly weakened or impaired if at appropriate 
ages the situations which call them into activity are lack- 
ing. The inborn tendency to acquire oral speech, so strong 
between the ages of one and three, wanes decidedly after 
seven years if for any reason, such as deafness, speech can- 
not be easily acquired during its nascent period. The ten- 
dency to climbing, shown so strongly by many children, is 
by others largely or entirely missed if favorable opportunity 
is not at hand at the appropriate time. The innate tenden- 
cies toward distinctly personal religious expression, normally 
culminating at adolescence, if not given encouragement or 
opportunity for expression at or before this age, are likely 
not to be shown later. 

The instincts of human beings are more indefinite, imper- 
fect, and variable than those of any other species. In general 
it may be said that the degree of definiteness, perfection, 
and fixity of instincts is proportional to the position in the 
animal series occupied by the animals possessing them. In 
the main it is true that the lowest forms of life have the most 
definite, perfect, and unmodifiable instincts, while the in- 
stincts of man possess these characteristics in the least de- 
gree. The instincts of insects are most strikingly complete, 
exact, and uniform. The nest-building activities of the 
wasp, the oriole, or the squirrel are infinitely more definite 
and invariable, and more perfectly adapted to the ends they 
serve, than those activities by which untrained man pro* 



106 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

vides shelter for himself and his family- Similarly the means 
employed in self-preservation, the objects toward which 
curiosity is shown, and the manifestations of the pugnacious 
instinct are much more variable and indefinite than with 
any other form of animal life. 

Again, some innate tendencies are periodic. The more 
significant factors in periodicity are the daily and seasonal 
rhythms and the temporary bodily conditions. The nest- 
building and migratory tendencies of birds, the hibernation 
of the bear, and the seasonal mating of many animals are 
good illustrations. With human beings periodicity of in- 
stincts is not lacking, but owing to the complications with 
habits and ideas are not so evident. Those centering in the 
sex instinct are perhaps the most striking. 

Complexities of human activities. The activities of human 
beings are much more complex than those of any other form 
of life. The assertion that they have more instincts than 
any other animal, made many years ago by Professor James, 
is a widely accepted view. A wealth of innate tendencies is 
the natural correlate of a complex life. The possession of 
many instincts is, however, not the most striking difference 
between man and other forms of life. The human infant is 
less well equipped at birth and is less dependent throughout 
life upon his own instincts than any other being. Major 
Powell, in his From Barbarism to Civilization (p. 97), pic- 
tures the condition of the newborn infant in these words: 
"Every child is born destitute of the things possessed in 
manhood which distinguish him from lower animals. Of all 
industries he is artless; of all institutions he is lawless; of all 
languages he is speechless; of all philosophies he is opinion- 
less; of all reasoning he is thoughtless; but arts, institu- 
tions, languages, opinions, and mentations he acquires as 
the years go by from childhood to manhood. In all these 
respects the newborn babe is hardly the peer of the newborn 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 107 

beast; but, as the years pass, ever and ever he exhibits his 
superiority in all the great classes of activities, until the dis- 
tance by which he is separated from the brute is so great 
that his realm of existence is in another kingdom of nature." 

John Fiske did us an important service when, in his 
Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy (1874), he forcefully called 
our attention to the fact that the helplessness of the human 
infant, as compared with the young of other species, is a 
necessary condition of his becoming human. The inade- 
quacy of his instincts throws burdens upon the supplemen- 
tary instincts of his parents which have been the largest 
factor in the institution of the human family and of the whole 
social order. What is not cared for by instinct must be met 
by habit, by intelligence, and by reason. The human in- 
stincts are fortunately inadequate, variable, indefinite, 
and plastic, for thus and thus only has human progress 
been possible. If the instincts of an animal are absolutely 
fixed and invariable, if they are all present at birth, and if 
they are ample and adequate to meet all the essential needs 
of life, the door to habit formation, to intelligent, voluntary 
activity, the door to education, is forever closed to that 
animal. Recent studies of instinct have pretty conclusively 
shown that with no animal is the case quite so extreme as 
our statement may seem to imply, but it is unquestionably 
true that the capacity for training, for education, and for 
advancement is directly proportional to the plasticity of 
innate tendencies. The rapidly changing conditions of 
human life continually demand new adjustments. Life's 
most significant and important problems are no longer met 
by instinct, but by the use of deliberation and intelligent 
response. 

In making clear the inadequacy of human instincts we 
must not obscure the equally important fact that strong 
innate tendencies lie at the basis of all activities of man, 



108 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

whether high or low. "Take away these instinctive disposi- 
tions," says McDougall, "with their powerful impulses, 
and the organism would become incapable of activity of 
any kind; it would lie inert and motionless like a wonderful 
clockwork whose mainspring has been removed, or a steam- 
engine whose fires have been drawn. These impulses are the 
mental forces that maintain and shape all the life of indi- 
viduals and societies, and in them we are confronted with 
the central mystery of life and mind and will." The instincts 
have been the means of man's preservation and evolution 
to higher and higher stages, and yet the way to future 
advance lies in the main over the difficult road of elimination 
of some, the redirection of others, and the control of all the 
instinctive tendencies by the higher thought processes. 

Instincts and emotions. The emotions are all related to 
instincts. They are the feeling aspect of instinctive reac- 
tions. For the most part instinctive responses are continued 
when satisfaction and pleasure result, or when dissatisfac- 
tion or pain can thus be avoided. In short, all of them are 
modifications of the primitive pleasure-pain responses. 
Many of the specific emotions are characteristic of particu- 
lar instincts. In some instincts the emotional element is so 
strong that some writers have even given the name of the 
emotion to the instinct; as, for example, those who speak of 
the "instinct of anger," or the "instinct of fear." The rela- 
tionship between instincts and emotions is one of corre- 
spondence. A few of the more striking illustrations, as given 
by McDougall (27, pp. 121 ff .), will make this relatively clear. 
The instinct of flight is accompanied by the emotion of fear; 
the instinct of pugnacity, by the emotion of anger; the in- 
stinct of repulsion, by the emotion of disgust; that of curi- 
osity by the emotion of wonder; the parental instinct, by 
the tender emotion. It is a mistake, however, to assert that 
all instincts are accompanied by emotions so peculiarly 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 109 

characteristic. This is clear when one attempts to name the 
emotion which is peculiar to the social instinct, the instinct 
of acquisition, or the instinct of general physical activity. 
It is still more difficult to make out such definite correspond- 
ence when one comes to deal with complexes of several in- 
stincts in a single response. Here the emotions also become 
highly complex. Thus originate such emotions as awe (ad- 
miration plus fear); reverence (awe plus gratitude); scorn 
(anger plus disgust); and other complex emotions such as 
contempt, loathing, jealousy, envy, or appreciation of the 
beautiful. 

Since the connection between instincts and emotions is so 
close, it should be evident why children are in very early 
years incapable of experiencing such complex emotions as 
gratitude, reverence, the aesthetic emotions, or even some 
of the more fundamental ones, such as love for the opposite 
sex. These emotions have their birth with the instincts to 
which they correspond, and depend upon experiences which 
cannot be had until these instincts have begun to function. 
The laws of physical and mental growth, therefore, condition 
the capacity to experience many of the emotions, because 
they condition the birth of instincts apart from which the 
emotion cannot be experienced. 

From the fact of the close relationship between the emo- 
tions and the instincts it should be clear that since the in- 
stincts dominate much more of the behavior of children 
than of adults, the emotions also are normally relatively 
stronger and less well controlled in childhood. Periods when 
many instincts are coming to their full strength are therefore 
periods of emotional stress as well. This is peculiarly the 
case in early childhood and at adolescence. The emotions 
are best studied at these periods because more spontaneous 
and unrestrained. No one has so well commented upon this 
fact as Hall (15, vol. 2, pp. 59-60), who has offered trench- 



110 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

ant criticism of attempts at analysis and description of the 
emotions by psychologists. If we ever learn the true essence, 
meaning, and significance of the emotions, it will be by the 
direct study of their objective manifestation in childhood 
and adolescence. Their proper evaluation and use in life 
and in education is largely a problem of the future. 

Classification of instincts. Human instincts are highly 
complex, and, as may be anticipated from our discussion of 
their characteristics, are not easily classified. The classifi- 
cations offered by various writers differ widely with their 
different theories and points of view. Many of these have 
been carefully studied in the light of the best conceptions 
of instinct presented to us by present-day biologists and 
psychologists. We have repeatedly tried to formulate a 
satisfactory classification of our own. The result of such 
efforts has been the growing conviction that satisfactory 
classification is impossible. We shall, therefore, not attempt 
to offer an original grouping, nor shall we advise the reader 
to attach any great importance to the classifications found 
in the literature. If any of them are of help to a better 
understanding of the instincts and their place in life, there 
can be no objection to their use so far. We would warn the 
student, however, of the serious danger of being misled and 
hindered rather than helped by many of them. 

A brief statement of the reasons for our position may not 
be out of place. To classify instincts, as Mark (39, p. 135) 
does, into : (1) those primarily motor — ■ climbing, fighting, 
etc. ; (2) those that are chiefly intellectual — curiosity, gen- 
eral mental activity, etc. ; (3) those with strong accompani- 
ment of emotion — fear, pugnacity, sex, etc., — seems to 
the author to be not only artificial, but actually misleading. 
To make the predominance of one or other of these elements 
the basis of classification tends to obscure the fact that all 
instincts have all three elements. To classify them, with 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 111 

Holmes (39, p. 135), as, (1) sympathetic; (2) aesthetic, and 
(3) scientific, tends to encourage the loosest possible use of 
the term instinct, which tendency we are attempting to 
combat, as well as to imply for them a teleological origin. 
Even such convenient, and perhaps we should say useful, 
classifications as that of Kirkpatrick (24), and the slightly 
modified forms of it that appear in many other sources, 
from the standpoint of their functions into (1) individual- 
istic, (2) parental, (3) social, (4) adaptive, (5) regulative, 
and (6) miscellaneous, tend to commit us, if we accept 
them, to the teleological view of the origin of instincts or 
the still more doubtful one of "lapsed intelligence.' ' The 
failure of such classifications is indicated by the fact that 
there has to be a " miscellaneous " group into which to 
dump all those instincts that defy classification. 

Other classifications might be cited, but here we have one 
of the least and one of the most satisfactory. All tend to be 
logical, artificial, or arbitrary rather than natural or psycho- 
logical, and worst of all to be more or less misleading. The 
reason is not far to seek. The nature of the stimuli and of 
the situations evoking instinctive responses, in human be- 
ings especially, are exceedingly varied and complex. The 
responses themselves are even more so. A given response is 
often the result of the simultaneous action of several in- 
stinctive tendencies. Age, sex, bodily condition, habit, voli- 
tion, the nature of the accompanying consciousness, all tend 
to complicate the situation still further, so that it is difficult 
to say whether it is primarily an instinctive act, a habit, or 
a voluntary act, or, as is usually the case, no one of these, 
but a combination of all of them. 

In spite, then, of the disappointment some will undoubt- 
edly feel that no logical classification of instincts is offered, 
we must leave the matter thus unsettled. We are strongly 
convinced that all too often, in the difficult field of human 



11* CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

psychology, a definite, logically formulated, easily memo- 
rised classification of phenomena gives the student a sense 
of certainty, of finality, a feeling of understanding alto- 
gether detrimental to real appreciation of the complexity 
of the phenomena in question. Classifications are of value 
if they help one to think more clearly; they are detrimental 
if they confuse and mislead. The student's greatest need in 
this field is an appreciative understanding of particular in- 
stincts and capacities in their concrete manifestations, a 
clear notion of the relation of instincts to habits and volun- 
tary acts, a knowledge of their relation to physical and men- 
tal development, to the learning process, and to education 
in general. 

General pedagogical bearing of non-learned behavior. 
Since all conduct is conditioned by innate tendencies, all 
acquired by non-learned behavior, it is extremely impor- 
tant to know all we can of the innate tendencies of human 
nature. The emotional element of most instincts is so strong 
that it is self-evident that most of the interests are condi- 
tioned directly by instinctive-emotional complexes. We 
cannot understand or anticipate interests, then, without an 
understanding of their inborn correlates. Since instincts 
have their birth at certain fairly definite times, ripen in 
fairly definite order, and since many decline similarly, if we 
try to "strike while the iron is hot," as James figuratively 
states it, we must know the nascent periods of all important 
instincts and the interests related to them. These are the 
times favorable to the establishment of worthy interests, 
and for filling the mind with valuable knowledge concerning 
them. 

Quite as true is it, on the other hand, that we must know 
the nascent period, the normal course of development, the 
ordinary exciting stimuli, and the relation to other ten- 
dencies of all those instinctive responses that are wholly 01 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 113 

partially undesirable under present conditions of life, so 
that we may the more surely prevent their becoming hard- 
ened into habits. There is a favorable time to acquire knowl- 
edge of the physical world of things, knowledge of self, and 
knowledge of moral and ethical standards that govern the 
relations of people. 

There is a favorable time to acquire skill in speech, in 
walking, in drawing, in musical technique, etc. There are 
favorable times to establish permanent lines of worthy in- 
terests in healthful games and sports, in industrial occupa- 
tion, in the broader scope of human affairs, in the arts, in 
nature, in reading, and in the sciences. There are relation- 
ships between the innate tendencies and all these fields of 
knowledge, skill, and interest which teachers and parents 
cannot afford to ignore. "To detect the moment of instinc- 
tive readiness for the subject is, then, the first duty of every 
educator" says Professor James (22, vol. 2, p. 402). 

So, too, there is a favorable time to safeguard the child 
against harmful domination by his instincts. Having a 
knowledge of the innate tendencies and of the times at 
which they commonly appear, the educator has the addi- 
tional obligation to further their control. There are three 
commonly accepted methods by which this is to be accom- 
plished. 

(1) By use and the association of satisfaction with a 
response, it is developed and hardened into habit. For 
example, when the innate tendency to locomotion has 
reached its nascent period, the habit of walking will be 
readily acquired if only opportunity is afforded. The in- 
nate tendencies to linguistic expression are so strong that 
the habit of speech is acquired in a few months under rea- 
sonably favorable conditions. At the appropriate time the 
habit responses involved in the game of baseball will find 
the strongest kind of backing in instinctive tendencies. 



114 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

(#) By disuse, direct opposition, or association of dis- 
pleasure with its exercise, the tendency to an undesirable 
response may be eliminated or minimized. Carefully pro- 
tect a child from all the well-known occasions for instinc- 
tive fears and he may escape a host of groundless ones; let 
him learn that outbursts of anger bring only displeasure and 
deprivation and the outbursts cease or become less frequent; 
punish promptly and suitably, if no better means are avail- 
able, when he is destructive and a bad habit may be pre- 
vented. On the other hand, it must not be overlooked that 
many desirable habits for which there is the strongest in- 
stinctive backing are never formed because the favorable 
period passes by unused. 

(3) By redirection or substitution, desirable responses are 
grafted upon the stock of those that are undesirable, or un- 
desirable responses are inhibited by the exercise of desir- 
able opposing ones. Put the destructive child to work at 
some useful constructive enterprise; help the boys, whose 
sole desire is to fight, to organize a baseball or basketball 
team and work off their energy in accord with rules; turn 
the mischievous gang into a club with worth-while activi- 
ties to carry out, enlist the members in a company of Boy 
Scouts, or furnish any legitimate outlet for its energy and 
genius, and often the desired control is attained. Help the 
boy all throughout his childhood to build up regular habits 
of eating, of sleep, and of exercise in the open, habits of in- 
dustry and effort; help him to cultivate high ideals of 
cleanliness of body and purity of mind, of bodily perfection, 
honor, virtue, respect for parents, for women and for child- 
hood; and, if you succeed, you need have little fear but 
that you have built up sufficient check against anti-social 
manifestation of the sex instinct at adolescence. Thus often 
is control prepared for long ahead of the time of special 
stress. 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 115 

All of these methods must be used in appropriate ways 
and at the right times if innate tendencies are to be of aid 
to education. The choice of method is often difficult, and 
cannot, in most cases, be prescribed in advance, since in- 
dividual differences in the time, strength, and persistence 
of the instincts themselves complicate the task. As a rule, 
positive and active means of control are superior to merely 
negative ones. Use, therefore, where possible, and especially 
redirection and substitution of instinctive tendencies, are 
the best methods. 

Some inborn tendencies of greatest educational value. 
Among the instincts and complex innate tendencies we 
have time to single out only a few for brief consideration. 
In later chapters we shall in some detail discuss such ac- 
tivities as play, language, drawing, and the moral responses, 
none of which can be called instincts proper, but all of 
which have marked instinctive bases. So, too, in discussing 
suggestion, and in our treatment of various mental processes 
the bearing of inborn tendencies will often appear. 

The innate tendency to general physical activity. Of all 
the inborn tendencies none is of greater importance for ed- 
ucation than that to respond in motor activity to the in- 
fluences of environment. From birth, and even before 
birth, impulsive movements — movements without ex- 
ternal stimulus — give evidence of the capacity of the child 
to be active, and through activity to come into educative 
relationship with his environment. This is the essential 
mark of life itself. Spontaneous movements of hands, arms, 
legs, stretching of the body, apparently purposeless move- 
ments of the eyes and head, facial movements, vocal play, 
and many others are among the simplest and earliest man- 
ifestations of this tendency. Without such tendencies 
education and training could do nothing. This is the raw 
material with which education begins. In a very true sense 



116 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

education itself consists in the changes made in an indi- 
vidual through his motor responses. Nothing has been more 
clearly revealed in our study of child life than that edu- 
cation "comes in through the muscles.' ' 

Movement is older phyletically and individually than 
mental activity, and is the indispensable correlate of the 
latter. This fact the teacher should never lose sight of. 
When it comes to be fully understood, the place and function 
of manual and motor activities in education will be more 
clearly appreciated than is now generally the case, and such 
activities will never be considered as secondary, but rather 
as cardinal. Improvement of motor responses, acquirement 
of skill, poise, and control of body are not so much the re- 
sult of education as they are the essence of education itself. 
Our increasing understanding of the physical nature of 
children and of their instinctive tendencies has made it very 
clear "that mind and body have evolved together in the 
race, and have developed together in the individual, in 
ore continuous process" (35, p. 15). Several of our suc- 
ceeding chapters will tend to make this still clearer. 

Curiosity. The impulse to attend to, to approach and 
examine, things about which there exists an element of 
uncertainty, is by all admitted to have an instinctive basis. 
It is characteristic of many higher animals, and is excep- 
tionally strong in the monkey and in man. With both the 
latter it is accompanied by a strong tendency to manipu- 
late objects that are new or not well understood: so much 
so that the expression "to monkey with " has become a very 
common colloquial expression for meddlesome curiosity. 
As McDougall (27, pp. 57-59) and others have shown, it is 
often operative in close connection, and often in rapid 
alternation, with the instinct of flight. For this reason it is 
sometimes hurtful and even destructive to the individual, as 
when the antelope comes within rifle range at the waving of 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 117 

a red bandanna from behind a rock, or when the boy loses 
a hand in his attempt to see what is in the cannon cracker. 
The strength of the tendency differs greatly with the in- 
dividual. It is a marked trait in the explorer, and in those 
of scientific bent. Its correlation with intelligence has nol 
been made out, but there are reasons for thinking it 
may be high. With man the tendency extends itself to 
investigations and explorations in the realm of the mental 
as well as of the physical. It is the motive for intel- 
lectual as well as physical endeavor. It brings about the 
expenditure of energy and effort in manifold ways, and often 
to almost limitless degrees. It has been an important motive 
of much of the scientific research, geographic exploration, 
and intellectual speculation that have added so much to the 
sum of human knowledge. Hall (15, vol. 2, p. 449) speaks of 
curiosity as the "bud of mind," basing his statement upon 
the study of the natural histories of many of the instincts 
and emotions which he and his students have carried out. 
His study with Dr. Smith (18, p. 84) of Curiosity and In- 
terest seems to show that both the tendency itself and the 
objects exciting curiosity vary with age, sex, experience, 
training, and with the other instinctive tendencies present, 
and perhaps with other factors. Its stimuli are first largely 
sensory, but become, with perhaps minor fluctuations, in- 
creasingly intellectual with age. Among the more common 
manifestations in infancy are passive and active staring, 
listening, the passion to touch, to taste, to handle, to ask 
questions, to destroy, and the like. Later come the tenden- 
cies to constructive experimentation, the making and work- 
ing of puzzles, teasing, desire for travel which leads often to 
truancy, and many others. Even serious social and moral 
offenses, committed "to see what will happen," are not 
infrequently initiated quite as much by curiosity as by any 
other cause. 



118 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

Curiosity bears very close relation to attention and inter- 
est, to which the latter quite largely owe their strength and 
direction. This relationship we shall further consider in 
other connections. 

The variety of exciting causes and the resultant non- 
specific character of the responses is the chief reason why 
some writers, as Parmelee (34), object to calling curiosity an 
instinct. These characteristics, however, make this ten- 
dency, which even he admits to have a strong instinctive 
basis, all the more useful for the purposes of education. 
There is almost nothing worth while about which curiosity 
may not be aroused in due time. In a sense the objects 
toward which curiosity is spontaneously shown seem, as 
Hall and Smith (18, p. 136) hold, to mark for us the "intel- 
lectual nascent stages" and the ripening of new instinctive 
tendencies. These should give the teacher his cue, for cer- 
tainly the acquisition of knowledge under the spur of 
spontaneous interest and active curiosity is far easier and 
more effective than that which is enforced without them. " It 
may be that we shall some time come to reflect that forcing 
knowledge upon unwilling minds that are unripe for it is 
immoral" (18, p. 137), and that "curiosity is the active 
factor in the development of attention, and lack of it shows 
either mental deficiency or bad pedagogy" (18, p. 139). 

General mental activity. The most distinctively human ca- 
pacity is the inborn tendency to diverse and manifold men- 
tal activity. As Thorndike (46, pp. 141-43) has shown, 
there appears to be an inborn satisfyingness in mental ac- 
tivity itself apart from that connected specifically with 
exercise of particular instincts. More than any other ten- 
dency this makes possible the extension of human knowl- 
edge and the evolution of mind itself. Mental tendencies 
are quite as much non-learned as are motor ones. The two 
are definitely interdependent, as has already been indicated. 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 119 

Instinctive motor responses initiate, condition, and elabo- 
rate mental processes. There is continuous action and re- 
action of mind and body. Many types of mental response 
are quite as characteristic, uniform, and essentially instinc- 
tive as are the bodily activities which are their usual counter- 
part. Without such inborn tendencies education has no 
point of departure or means of effecting changes in human 
nature. Almost the whole of intellectual development con- 
sists in growth, control, and redirection of inborn ten- 
dencies to observe, pay attention to, and think about en- 
vironment and what it brings to the senses. The skill of 
the teacher consists largely in ability to select wisely and 
present appropriately the best stimuli to call forth the 
kinds of native mental reaction that are most worth while. 

The social instinct. Another innate tendency that has 
much significance for education is that which shows itself 
in desire for companionship, in the gregariousness of the 
gang, clique, set, club, or society, in cooperativeness, in 
rivalry, competition, and emulation, in love of approbation 
and in readiness to sacrifice self for the good of the group. 
All this group of tendencies are in the main non-learned. 
They are of the utmost importance to the establishment and 
maintenance of human institutions; they form the chief 
stimulus to the development of most of the important hu- 
man capacities; they condition habits, interests, and ideals. 

To say that these tendencies are innate does not pre- 
clude the necessity of their definite training. Education and 
training must direct, control, and utilize them to further 
ends and ideals which the experience of the race has proved 
desirable. The school has as yet hardly begun to utilize 
as its ally the native social impulses which can be easily 
turned by skillful and proper direction into educational and 
civic assets of the highest order. 



120 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. What are the essential elements of an instinctive act? 

2. Give illustrations of human reflexes, instincts, "activities with in- 
stinctive basis" (complexes). 

3. State the more striking characteristics of human instincts and innate 
tendencies. 

4. Why are human instincts so difficult to classify? 

5. In what ways must teachers deal with instincts or innate tendencies? 

6. Take some one human instinct or innate tendency and show its 
educational values. 

7. Why is a thoroughgoing knowledge of instincts an essential qualifica- 
tion for all who would deal effectively with children? 

8. Is the effort we have made to reclaim the term instinct from the 
extremely loose usage now current futile or worth while? Why? 

9. Why, if instincts originated as practically serviceable responses of 
real value, do we now have to spend so much effort ridding ourselves 
of many of them? Should we not be better off without instincts? 

10. Make an accurate explanatory statement of the relation of instincts 
and innate tendencies to delinquency. 

11. What is the relation of instinct to attention? To emotion? 

12. Observe the activities of a child of five or of nine years for an hour or 
a day and determine in how far they are instinctive. 

13. Watch for instances in which the child himself attempts to control 
or uproot an instinctive tendency. 

14. Make a list of instinctive tendencies with distinct educational values. 
Make another of harmful instinctive tendencies. 

15. Is it ever entirely safe to "follow nature"? 



SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. Addams, Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Street. (1909.) 162 pp. 

2. Baldwin, J. M. Development and Evolution (1902), pp. 61-80. 

3. Betts, G. H. The Mind and its Education (1906), pp. 161-95. 

4. British Journal of Psychology. 

Volume 3, part 3, is devoted to the discussion of Instinct and Intelligence. 

5. Calkins, Miss M. W. A First Book in Psychology (1910), pp. 170-208. 

6. Cannon, W. B. Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage. 

(1915.) 311 pp. 

7. Colvin, S. S. The Learning Process (1911), pp. 33-70. 

8. Colvin, S. S., and Bagley, W. C. Human Behavior (1913), pp. 72-105; 

126-64. 

9. Darwin, C. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. 

(1886.) 374 pp. 



NON-LEARNED HUMAN BEHAVIOR 121 

10. Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, J. M. Baldwin. (1002.) See 

"Instinct" and also "Emotion." 

11. Drummond, W. B. An Introduction to Child-Study (1905), pp. 194-235. 

12. Freud, S. "The Origin and Development of Psycho-Analysis"; In 

Lectures and Addresses on Psychology and Pedagogy, Twentieth Anni- 
versary of Clark University (1909), pp. 1-38. 

13. Gesell, A. L., and Mrs. B. C. The Normal Child and Primary Educa- 

tion (1912), pp. 61-83. 

14. Gross, K. The Play of Animals (1898), pp. 25-81. 

15. Hall, G. S. Adolescence. (1904.) Especially vol. 2, pp. 40-231. See 

also index under Anger, Emotion, Fear, Feeling, etc. 

16. Hall, G. S. "A Study of Fears"; in Am. Jour. ofPsy., vol. 8, pp. 147- 

249. 

17. Hall, G. S. "A Study of Anger"; in Am. Jour, of Psy., vol. 10, pp. 516- 

91. 

18. Hall, G. S. Aspects of Child Life and Education. (1907.) 326 pp. 

Several studies of innate tendencies by questionnaire method. 

19. Hall, G. S. "A Synthetic Genetic Study of Fear"; in Am. Jour, of 

Psy., vol. 25, pp. 149-200; 321-92. 

20. Hall, G. S. "Freudian Methods Applied to Anger"; in Am. Jour, of 

Psy., vol. 26, pp. 438^3. 

21. Holmes, S. The Evolution of Animal Intelligence. Especially chaps. 

n-vi. (1911.) 296 pp. 

22. James, W. Principles of Psychology. (1890.) Vol. 1, chap, iv, "Habit"; 

vol. 2, chap, xxiv, "Instincts"; chap, xxv, "Emotions." 

23. King, I. The Psychology of Child Development (1903), pp. 42-70. 

24. Kirkpatrick, E. A. Fundamentals of Child-Study (1903), pp. 51-247. 

25. Loeb, J. Comparative Anatomy of the Brain and Comparative Psychol- 

ogy (1903), pp. 177-200. 

26. Major, D. R. First Steps in Mental Growth (1906), pp. 72-123. 

27. McDougall, W. Social Psychology (1909.) 389 pp. Especially pp. 

19-89 on "Instincts," and pp. 121-58 on "Emotions." 

28. Meyer, M. The Fundamental Laws of Human Behavior. (1911.) 241pp. 

29. Moore, H. T. "A Method of Testing the Strength of Instincts" ; in 

Am. Jour, of Psy., vol. 27, pp. 227-34. 

30. Morgan, C. L. Animal Behavior. (1900.) Chap, in, "Instinctive Be- 

havior"; chap, vi, pp. 235-82, "Feeling and Emotion." 

31. Morgan, C. L. Introduction to Comparative Psychology. (1906.) 

Chap, xii, pp. 197-217, "Instinct and Intelligence." 

32. Mosso, A. Fear. (1895.) 278 pp. 

33. Myers, G. C. "Grasping, Reaching, and Handling"; in Am. Jour, oj 

Psy., vol. 26, pp. 525-39. 

34. Parmelee, M. The Science of Human Behavior. (1913.) 443 pp. 

35. Partridge, G. E. Genetic Philosophy of Education (1912), pp. 32-58. 

36. Patrick, G. T. W. Psychology of Relaxation. (1916.) 280 pp. 



122 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

37. Peterson, J. "Instinctive Tendencies in Man"; in Psy. Bulletin, 

vol. 13, pp. 412-16. (Annotated bibliography.) 
88. Pyle, W. The Outlines of Educational Psychology (1912), pp. 35-185. 

39. Sandiford, P. The Mental and Physical Life of School Children (1913), 

pp. 124-41. 

40. Sisson, E. O. The Essentials of Character. (1910.) Chaps, i-ii, pp. 5- 

43, on "Native Tendencies and the Treatment of Native Ten- 
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41. Stratton, G. M. "The Control of the Fighting Instinct"; in Am. 

Asso.for International Conciliation (1913), no. 73, p. 14. 

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Nature of Man. (1913.) 327 pp. 

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ff" Wundt, W. Human and Animal Psychology (1896), pp. 381-423. 

Note. Almost any standard text on psychology will contain chap- 
? on Instinct and Emotion. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 

Play and work. Many attempts have been made to differ- 
entiate work from play. None of them is wholly satisfying. 
No hard-and-fast line can ever be drawn between these 
two forms of psycho-physical activity, since, as Thorndike 
(59, p. 67) has shown, precisely the same inborn tendencies 
give rise to serious occupations as lie at the basis of playful 
ones. Dewey (20, vol. 4, p. 726) stresses the same point 
when he says that work "is inevitably preceded by play 
and grows insensibly out of it." We may regard play as the 
characteristic activity of the child and work as the dominant 
one with adults, but this is of little help in making the dis- 
tinction. Work and play have a common origin; objectively 
they often cannot be distinguished; subjective distinctions, 
too, are frequently by no means easy, for the purposes 
served by each and the emotional elements involved are by 
no means wholly unlike. Work, play, recreation, amuse- 
ment, labor, drudgery, are terms by means of which we 
attempt roughly to differentiate the various forms of human 
activity. In spite of the difficulty of making these distinc- 
tions exact and accurate, there is value in the attempt in 
that our ideas of the nature of each and the uses it serves 
are perfected in the process. We can best attain our present 
purpose by presenting a few typical definitions. 

" Work," says Parmelee (47, p. 252), "may be defined as 
being effort devoted to the production of things of value." 
Johnson (36, p. 25) remarks very simply that "work is the 
result of the force of habit." Hall (31, p. 116) contends that 
"work is menial, cheerless, grinding, regular, and requires 



1M CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

more precision and accuracy" than play, and that "the 
difference is essentially in the degree of strength of the 
psycho-physic motivations." Patrick's distinction is more 
detailed than most. He makes work "include all those activ- 
ities in which by means of sustained voluntary attention one 
holds one's self down to a given task for the sake of some 
end to be attained other than the activity itself. Such 
activities involve mental stress, strain, effort, tension, con- 
centration, and inhibition" (48, p. 476). 

. Play, on the other hand, is to Johnson (36, p. 25) "the 
result of the force of instinct." Parmelee (47, p. 248) makes 
it "the expenditure of energy purely for the sake of gaining 
pleasure without being directed toward any useful purpose." 
"The term play," says Patrick (48, p. 475), "may be applied 
to all those human activities which are free and spontaneous 
and which are pursued for their own sake alone." Hall's 
(31, p. 74) theory of play is involved in his statement that 
"I regard play as the motor habits and spirit of the past 
of the race, persisting in the present, as rudimentary func- 
tions sometimes of and always akin to rudimentary organs." 
Careful examination of these and other definitions of work 
and play shows a general agreement that work is genetically 
later than play; that it is less certainly pleasurable; that it 
usually lacks the interest and spontaneity of play; is more 
certainly engaged in for the sake of remote ends apart from 
the activity expended in securing those ends; is less immedi- 
ately related to the instincts, and therefore requires much 
greater exercise of such higher and lately acquired capacities 
as voluntary attention, concentration, and controlled and 
directed effort. There is also general agreement that each 
activity becomes more valuable as it approaches the other. 
As Brinton expresses it, "the measure of the value of work 
is the amount of play there is in it, and the measure of the 
value of play is the amount of work there is in it" (30, vol. 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 125 

i, p. 231). Every endeavor to make work more economical 
of energy, less irksome, less menial and more whole-souled 
iind satisfying, and every effort to make play serve the high- 
est and best purposes of life which menial labor has alone 
been thought capable of attaining, the better it will be for 
both child and adult. Work should have interest and zest; 
play should be the most serious and useful business of chil- 
dren, schooling them to effort and concentration. The 
physiological energies involved are of the same sort; the 
objects attained are often not radically different; play is 
often carried to the point of exhaustion, as is work; suitable 
work can be most enjoyable and satisfying; play is not 
always solely its own end, neither is work always engaged 
in merely for the ends attained by it; one may form habits 
of play as well as habits of work; and thus every attempted 
distinction tends to break down at some point. In spite of 
all this, we still recognize in a practical, common-sense way 
that work is work and play is play, and we are not commonly 
mistaken as to which it is we are engaged in. 

Theories of play. Why do children play? Ask the average 
child and you will probably find that he considers your 
question rather foolish and unnecessary. Chambers (12, 
pp. 720 ff .) asked 2481 children, ranging in age from six to 
eighteen years, "What game do you like to play best, and 
why?" The younger children considered it quite sufficient 
in justification of their favorite play to say, "It's fun"; 
"I like it"; "It's interesting." Such responses seem clearly 
to indicate that to them play is its own justification and 
sufficient excuse. Young children play because they feel 
like it. Few even of the older children appear to have given 
serious thought to the reasons underlying the attractiveness 
of play. With many the proposal of the question may have 
been the first occasion for serious consideration of the sub- 
ject, if, indeed, it was seriously considered even then. Play 



126 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

is clearly spontaneous, and has its basis in instinct, which 
from the child's point of view makes explanation unneces- 
sary. Play is the child's life and that life is thoroughly 
enjoyable, and were it not for the instinctive curiosity of 
adults the matter might rest there. 

But philosophers, physiologists, and psychologists, with 
their passion for explanations and their hope that any 
phenomenon well explained may throw light upon other 
perplexing problems, have sought completer theories of this 
self-revealing interest. Four theories have been stated with 
sufficient clearness to warrant mention here. 

(1) The Schiller-Spencer theory. The poet Schiller appears 
to have been the first modern writer to propose a theory 
with sufficient merit to warrant retention in the literature 
of play. His theory, more scientifically formulated and 
defended by Herbert Spencer, is now known as the Schiller- 
Spencer theory. The German poet and the English phi- 
losopher held that play is due to the expenditure of surplus 
energy. They contended that since the young have mos 4 . 
of their serious needs cared for by their parents, they have 
a superabundance or surplus of energy which must be ex* 
pended in some way, and that this energy takes the form 
of spontaneous, more or less aimless or purposeless activity 
to which we apply the name play. Play is the result of the 
spontaneous overflow of pent-up energy into psycho-motor 
channels. 

This simple theory has elements of truth. Healthy 
young animals do seem to have a superabundance of energy 
and an irrepressible tendency to expend it in ways which 
are often indefinite, purposeless and, to say the least, lack- 
ing in immediate utility. Undoubtedly the greater the sur- 
plus of energy the stronger the impulse to play. Excess of 
energy favors readiness of discharge into motor channels. 
The theory is, however, unsatisfactory both for what it 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 127 

implies and for what it omits. The child is a playing animal 
whether he has surplus energy or not. He is not naturally 
quiescent. He does not stop playing when he has exhausted 
his surplus energy. He plays when recovering from serious 
illness, when his vital energies are not even sufficient to 
meet ordinary demands. He may, and at times does, use 
his surplus energy voluntarily in work as well as in play. 
He does not cease to play when he has entered the serious 
business of adult life. But the most serious limitation of 
the theory is that it gives us no explanation of the fact 
that play assumes characteristic forms many of which are 
largely independent of race, sex, training, imitation, and 
even age factors; nor does it suggest why the forms of play 
are uniformly different in definite ways for different species 
of animals. Such apparently aimless and purposeless plays 
as the grasping, kicking, pulling, and pushing movements 
of the infant; his joyful screams, cries, and babble; his 
crude manipulation of objects, picking up and throwing 
down, and the like, might be considered as fairly well ex- 
plained on this theory. Such activities as hunting, fishing, 
wrestling, tree-dwelling, and cave-digging; such plays as 
those with pets, marbles, balls, and bats; such games as tag, 
fox-and-geese, and all those involving search and chase, as 
well as the whole repertory of imitative games, are left with- 
out adequate explanation. 

{2) The Groos theory. In 1898 Groos published his volumi- 
nous work, Play of Animals, and three years later his Play 
of Man, in which a new theory was proposed. After exhaus- 
tive study of plays in both fields, Groos comes to the con- 
clusion that play "is the agency employed to develop crude 
powers and prepare them for life's uses" (27, p. 375). The 
instincts of man, Groos thinks, are more numerous than 
those of any other animal, but also more inadequate in 
meeting the necessities of life in the "struggle for existence," 



128 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

since with man the intellectual powers have become more 
important and useful than the most perfect instinct. While 
the intellectual capacities are developing, and while the 
instincts are imperfect, the child uses both playfully to 
develop them. It is the imperfect and undeveloped state 
of the instincts that makes play necessary. Says Groos 
again (27, p. 377), "My own view is that there is no general 
impulse to play, but various instincts are called upon when 
there is no occasion for their serious exercise, merely for the 
purpose of practice, and more especially preparatory prac- 
tice, and these instincts thus become specialized plays." 
The preparatory exercising of instincts for the purpose of 
perfecting them or transforming them into habits definitely 
helpful in meeting life's serious needs is for Groos the essence 
of play. Instincts have arisen by a process of natural selec- 
tion of activities which, when practiced, prepare in particu- 
lar and definite ways for the serious occupations of life. The 
child instinctively plays at what is later to be his work. On 
this theory those animals would have best chance of sur- 
vival that, while young, play at activities which they must 
engage in as adults. The theory thus emphasizes the bio- 
logical significance of play, and perhaps still more its educa- 
tional significance. 

This theory escapes some of the criticisms to which the 
surplus-energy theory is open, and to some of the critics 
seems fairly satisfactory. Play does unquestionably have 
its basis in instincts. All play does in a general way prepare 
for life's serious activities and some plays do so in specific 
ways. In so far as physical and mental capacities are given 
exercise, their development is furthered. Many desirable 
traits useful in any situation in life are developed by play; 
as, for example, self-direction, initiative, patience, persist- 
ence, courage, resourcefulness, concentration, ability to 
cooperate, power of inhibition, and many others. But with 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 129 

Groos the preparatory function of play is apparently thought 
of in very much more definite and specific ways than these. 
The kitten's pouncing upon the rolling ball is preparatory 
to the pursuit and capture of food; the puppy's playful 
snapping, snarling, and biting are preparatory to self-de- 
fense and overcoming of enemies or prey at maturity. The 
doll play of the girl prepares her for the mothering of chil- 
dren. The hunting, fishing, and collecting plays of boys 
must be explained as preliminary practice for the serious 
occupation of providing sustenance for the family in maturer 
years. These happily chosen illustrations seem to accord 
fairly well with the theory. If children frequently chose in 
the end those occupations which as children they most per- 
sistently imitated, it would not be difficult to see that such 
plays could have a very definite preparatory value, but such 
choice is not now common. Again, if one chooses plays at 
random it becomes quite difficult, if not impossible, to trace 
any definite relationship between many of the child's most 
characteristic play interests and any of the present-day oc- 
cupations of adults. As Patrick has well shown, many of 
the plays of children bear but slight resemblance to the life 
activities of adult man. Much more do they resemble the 
serious pursuits of our primitive and prehistoric forbears. 
Some of them resemble the sports, games, and recreations 
of adults more closely than they do their serious occupa- 
tions. "The great body of children's plays find their sig- 
nificance, not in their likeness, but in their unlikeness to 
their future laborious duties" (48, pp. 472-73). 

Other serious objections to the Groos theory can be only 
mentioned. Hall (31, p. 73) characterized it, soon after it 
was first proposed, as "partial, superficial, and perverse," 
and as ignoring " the past where lie the keys to all the play 
activities." It is objected that play is the "serious" busi- 
ness of the young just as work is of the adult; that play is 



ISO CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

quite as important for the one as work for the other; that 
play serves present ends quite as much as future ones. The 
theory fails to account for adult plays, games, and sports. 
It has no explanation for the strong element of restraint 
which is one of the striking characteristics of the playful 
exercise of some of the instincts, notably the instinct of pug- 
nacity in dog or boy (43, pp. 110-15). The elements of 
reasonableness and of truth in this theory must not blind us 
to the fact that play needs fuller explanation. 

(3) The recapitulatory theory. A third theory of play goes 
under the name "recapitulatory." It has been chiefly sup- 
ported by Hall and his students. Hall's first statement of 
this theory appeared in connection with his criticism of the 
Groos theory. According to the view of Hall (30, vol. 1, 
p. £0£ ei seq.; SI, p. 73 el seq.), play is to be explained in the 
light of the past. The young live over in play the serious 
activities of primitive and prehistoric man. Both the motor 
and the psychic motives of play are to be found in the remote 
past. " In play every mood and movement is instinct with 
heredity" (31, p. 74). In play "pleasure is always exactly 
proportional to the directness and force of the current of 
heredity, and in play we feel most fully and intensely ances- 
tral joys" (30, vol. 1, p. 206). True play practices the old, 
not the new, activities of the race. Many of the play activ- 
ities are atavistic and reversionary, tending toward entire 
disappearance, but still requiring, like the tadpole's tail, to 
be exercised in due time in order to stimulate the growth of 
later functions. In play "we rehearse the activities of our 
ancestors, back we know not how far, and repeat their life- 
work in summative and adumbrated ways" (31, p. 74). The 
distinctly recapitulatory element of the theory appears still 
more definitely in the following quotation : — 

Tims stage by stage we reenact their lives. Once in the phylon 
many activities were elaborated in the lif e-and-death. struggle for 



THE PLAY OP CHILDREN 13> 

existence. Now the elements and combinations oldest in the 
muscle history of the race are represented earliest in the indi- 
vidual, and those later follow in order. This is why the heart of 
youth goes out into play as into nothing else, as if it remembered 
a lost paradise (31, p. 74). 

The chief superiority of this theory over the others con- 
sists in the fact that it explains the forms of play much moxe 
satisfactorily than they. The cardinal forms of play can, 
on this theory, as Hall asserts they do, remain the same 
from era to era in spite of complete changes in social and 
industrial conditions. The theory admits the preparatory 
value of play as a secondary function. It admits the partial 
truth in the superfluous-energy theory by showing that the 
tremendous psycho-motor impulsion back of age-long racial 
experience favors not merely the outflowing of energy in 
spontaneous play, but adds to and completes that theory by 
showing why this outgoing energy takes the form it does- 
It must be admitted that the recapitulatory theory upon 
which play is explained rests upon a very uncertain foun- 
dation, especially when it stresses the order in which racial 
activities are rehearsed. This theory also fails satisfactorily 
to explain the plays and sports of adults. Hall himself 
says (34, p. 517), "We have as yet no satisfactory psycho- 
logical theory of what play means and what it does, and 
my own modest contribution here consists merely in the 
suggestion that if ever we have one it will regard play as 
for the most part regressive." 

(4) The relaxation theory. Patrick, to whom all future 
theorists of play must acknowledge indebtedness, and 
whom Hall (34, p. 513) declares to "have the clearest con- 
ception of any one I know of the nature of play," has re- 
cently elaborated what may perhaps be called the "re- 
laxation theory," although this term does not adequately 
or quite fairly represent it. His forceful criticisms of the 



18& CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

earlier theories, and his concrete application of his theory 
to such games as baseball, football, golf, and many simpler 
plays and games, lead one to give serious consideration to 
his three propositions concerning a satisfactory theory of 
play: — 

1. That play is free, spontaneous, self -developing, and 
self -rewarding, and is inclusive of practically all of the 
child's activities and many of those of adults. 

S. That child play and adult sport should be closely cor- 
related and explained on the same principles. 

3. That the play activities of both child and adult "tend 
to take the forms of old racial activities, involving 
brain tracts that are old, well-worn, and pervious" 
(48, p. 477). 

Patrick holds that the essence of work is found in the 
presence of sustained attention, controlled association, con- 
centration, and analysis, together with inhibition of im- 
pulses. These are the capacities that have made for prog- 
ress in civilization, but in children they are undeveloped, 
in adults only partially so, and in any case the use of them 
is excessively and rapidly fatiguing. Energy available for 
play, therefore, takes the line of least resistance. The plays 
of children and the sports of adults take the form of those 
racial activities which are oldest, simplest, and most ele- 
mental, because, "the more elemental these activities have 
been in the history of racial development, the greater re- 
lease they afford when indulged in as a relaxation from 
the tension of modern life" (48, p. 477). Children play, and 
their play takes the simple, elemental forms it does be- 
cause the higher capacities involved in work are not yet 
developed in them. Adults engage in games and sports, or 
participate as interested spectators at ball-games, prize- 
fights, horse-races, or at the theater, because to do so gives 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 1S3 

relief, rest, and recreation from the stress and strain of work. 
Both play at activities which are alike elemental and primi- 
tive because such activities are natural, spontaneous, satis- 
fying and pleasurable. The essence of play on this theory is 
its recreative, regenerative, and hygienic character. 

As an illustration of the application of the theory, Patrick 
shows how in baseball three elements are involved which 
are among the oldest and oftenest repeated activities of the 
human race, and which give an exhilaration and emotional 
stir such as few activities do. They are throwing, striking, 
and running. These are activities which were begun in the 
infancy of the race, when man was learning to defend him- 
self from wild animals and hostile men, and to secure food 
by throwing missiles or chasing and striking his prey with 
a club. The brain tracts involved are, therefore, "old, well- 
worn, and pervious," and to engage in a game involving 
such activities is highly satisfying and recreative, especially 
when the game involves still other such elements as com- 
petition, rivalry, personal encounter, cooperation, and ex- 
citement of primitive emotions. The passion to play with 
fire, which Chase (13) found to be the most popular play 
on the streets of New York City, can well be accounted for 
on this theory if we consider the tremendously important 
place fire has had in the life of both primitive and civilized 
man. 

What children play. The number of statistical, observa- 
tional, and questionnaire studies of play has been quite 
sufficient to reveal the chief play interests, their character, 
their variety, and the changes in them with age, sex, race, 
environment, season, and other factors. Not the least 
striking fact about plays and games is their wonderful 
variety. Johnson (36, p. 101) lists and discusses something 
like five hundred and seventy-five games, which was about 
half of those the names and descriptions of which he col- 



234 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

lected. Croswell (16) found that his two thousand Worcester 
Bchool-children, equally divided between the sexes, named 
over seven hundred plays and games which were current 
among them. This list omits most of the plays of infancy, 
probably many of those not current at the season of the 
year when the study was made, and is unquestionably for 
other reasons an incomplete list even for the school-children 
of that one city. All studies show similar profusion of the 
forms of play; in fact, almost no limit can be set to its variety. 
Even the list of traditional games passed down from gener- 
ation to generation is a very extended one, as the various 
excellent books of plays and games show. Johnson (37) 
describes more than one hundred games of chasing, hunt- 
ing, throwing, and shooting alone which he considers suitable 
to early and later childhood, and his list is confessedly in- 
complete. This is only one of many groups of games. The 
activity of children in play becomes increasingly diversified 
from infancy till well into later childhood, when it tends 
to become more circumscribed. Croswell places this change 
at about twelve years. The activity of the average adult is 
vastly more restricted than that of children. The greater 
diversity of activity in childhood promotes an all-round, 
many-sided development, and strongly favors the view of 
those who give play this function. 

In spite of the almost bewildering variety of plays and 
games, closer examination reveals the fact that the general 
characteristics of the play are strongly alike for all children 
of the same age, regardless of race or environment. The 
essential character of play is subjectively determined, but 
the external form in which this essence is clothed may be 
varied greatly by external influences. 

Play as affected by age. No other factor so directly 
affects the nature of play as does age. Each period of child- 
hood has not only its characteristic plays, but the nature of 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 



135 



the plays and games themselves are distinctly different in 
each. In games that persist through several periods, the in- 
terest culminates at rather definite times. Examination of 

«7o 



4-o 



so 



2.0 



/o 




Age 6 7 # J *o // /z /3 /<* a*~ j& jj /S 

3 a// C/ames 
T",— ""gag <*«»"* of Chase. 



- Boy$ 



Figure 7. Interest m Various Games 

(After Croswell, Perf. Sem., vol. 6, p. 330, by permission of G. Stanley Ha!l.> 

the curves for different plays and games reveals three or four 
types of curve. There are plays such as that of girls with 
the doll, as studied by Ellis and Hall (32), in which from 
relative insignificance the interest rises rapidly to a culmina- 
tion at a rather definite age, and then as rapidly declines 



136 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

almost to extinction. There are others, like the toy interest, 
which have great prominence very early and decline stead- 
ily throughout the entire period of childhood. Others follow 
in the main the course of ball-games, which with boys rise 
steadily from insignificance to a prominence which they 
retain into adult years. Or, on the other hand, they may 
follow the course of the ball-games as in the case of girls, 
with whom they never become a prominent interest, but one 
which remains essentially constant throughout the years 
from six to seventeen. The accompanying graphs illustrate 
these various tendencies. 

There are several reasons for the change of interests with 
age. We have already pointed out in our discussion of in- 
stincts that certain instinctive tendencies are delayed in 
appearance, that some are transitory in nature, and that 
all tend to show so-called "nascent stages." Physical and 
physiological conditions are the chief internal factors which 
determine the functioning of instincts. The attainment, 
therefore, of a certain degree of physical and physiological 
development with the consequent appearance of accompany- 
ing instincts is the important consideration determining 
whether a given play or game is likely to be engaged in. 
Plays suitable to a certain age can be chosen only when one 
has definite knowledge of the physical and mental traits of 
the period, and, on the other hand, these traits are revealed 
by the nature of the spontaneous plays. In his characteriza- 
tion of the play periods, Johnson (36) makes a comprehen- 
sive survey of such facts as a background for, and explana- 
tion of, the plays and games of each period. This close and 
necessary relation between play and the instinctive physical 
and mental capacities is one important reason why a study 
of spontaneous play gives such valuable insight into the 
actual nature of childhood. This relationship is best seen 
when we observe the character of the activities of each period. 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 1S7 

Infancy (0-3 years). The characteristic plays l of in- 
fancy are those of sensory and motor experimentation. 
Any objects, including the parts of his own body, that serve 
the purpose of stimulating the senses of touch, sight, hear- 
ing, taste, smell, or temperature will be persistently used 
by the infant for that purpose. Handling, pulling, pushing, 
sucking, tasting, dropping, picking up, pounding, climbing, 
running, swinging, exploring, and, in the latter part of the 
period, simple imitative and dramatic activities, and many 
similar responses, give suitable and pleasing exercise to 
muscles and sense organs. There are no games, the plays 
are largely formless, the interests varied and fleeting. The 
description by Major (41) of what the baby did in forty- 
five minutes gives an excellent idea of the play of this period. 
Toys, liberally defined, absorb almost the whole of the in- 
fant's time and energy. The typical mother plays, peek-a- 
boo, pat-a-cake, finger plays, and the like, add an element 
of companionship that is early a definite need. Companion- 
ship is enjoyed, but is less necessary than at any later period. 
The infant, too, desires companionship for what he can get 
rather than what he can give. It is not an altruistic social 
impulse that he here displays. The activities of the period 
are almost purely individualistic, self-centered, even selfish, 
and their results are chiefly development of the sensory 
capacities and the fundamental muscles. 

Early childhood (4-7 years). The plays of this period 
continue, elaborate, and perfect the activities of the preced- 
ing one. There is in fact no sudden break, but rather an 
evolutionary change from period to period. In early child- 
hood, as in infancy, play is more truly its own end than at 
any later age. The activities themselves, rather than any 

1 In the characterizations which follow we are indebted chiefly to 
Johnson's (36) Education by Plays and Games, which may be consulted for 
fuller statements. 



138 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

remote or even immediate ends attained by them, are the 
important interest. Imagination becomes increasingly ac- 
tive and imitation assumes an important role, so that sim- 
ple dramatic and representative plays become numerous. 
Pleasure in companionship increases, but individual desires 
dominate, and the presence of a playmate calls forth little 
cooperation, rivalry, or competition. The growing need for 
companionship, however, makes play a great social teacher, 
developing speech, curbing selfishness, and paving the way 
for complete socialization. Toys still absorb on the average 
something like half of the child's time and interest, but the 
use made of them indicates a growing ability to control the 
larger muscles, to construct, to build, and to attain definite 
ends in play, although interests shift rapidly and there is 
little persistence in accomplishment of difficult ends. Ab- 
sorbing constructive efforts of one hour or one day are 
often forgotten for others the next. On the other hand, such 
studies as that of Miss Sisson (53) show that at the kinder- 
garten age a stable environment may result in the persist- 
ence for weeks of very simple plays, which are repeated 
over and over with never-ending interest. Curiosity and 
questioning are dominant impulses, which give point and 
form to, and stimulate or keep alive, many playful activities 
that exercise all the rapidly developing physical and men- 
tal capacities. No better index in fact can be had of the 
progress in these directions than that indicated by the 
changes in the nature of play. 

Later childhood (8-12 years). This period is both physi- 
cally and mentally one of readjustment and transition. 
Growth is slower than in either the preceding or the follow- 
ing periods. The later years are years of relative and in- 
creasing stability physically. The brain attains almost its 
mature size, and development of its functional capacity is 
advancing rapidly. Energy and vital capacity increase 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 139 

steadily toward the close of the period, so that both morbid- 
ity and susceptibility to fatigue decrease. This is the most 
active period of the child's life and more games are played 
than at any other age. Curiosity and active questioning of 
persons and things continue. Imagination, although active, 
is more controlled and constructively creative than earlier. 
Imitation takes new forms and becomes more purposeful. 
The motor aspects of play still dominate the intellectual, 
though the latter steadily increase in prominence. Effort 
is expended in more meaningful, definite, and constructive 
ways, and in activities which increasingly demand skill. 
As skijl increases, individual competition and rivalry enter 
prominently into play, and his games never more truly 
reveal the child's real nature than now. The increasing pro- 
portion of games, as contrasted with plays, calls for obedi- 
ence to rules and makes companionship more necessary. 
^ Regard for law and for enforcement of law greatly increase, 
but the laws of our complex adult civilization never rest 
more lightly on the shoulders of the child than at the close 
of this and the beginning of the next period. Real coopera- 
tion develops late, and the games are loosely organized and 
involve individual rather than group competition. The 
games, interest in which culminates during these years, are 
a valuable index to the nature, capacities, and traits of the 
player. Notable among the culminating interests are the 
doll and house plays of girls, all the loosely organized games 
of chase, many traditional games, the simple ball-games, 
collections, pets, puzzles, stumps, stunts, etc. 

At the close of this period and the beginning of the follow- 
ing, the boy, especially, is never more unlike the civilized 
adult. Never does he care more for the companionship of 
those of his own age and sex, nor less for that of those 
younger, older, or of the opposite sex. Lee (40) calls this the 
"Big Injun" age, and many students of play speak of the 



140 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

period as one in which the physical and mental traits oi 
the child bear striking resemblance to those of primitive 
man. Children are now keen, alert, more and more skillful, 
self-sufficient, have good control of their bodies, and are 
never less susceptible to domination in their play by their 
elders. Gangs, clubs, teams, and more loosely organized 
groups begin their dominating influence at eleven or twelve, 
restricting the number, but increasing the persistence, of 
the play and game activities. 

Adolescence {13-16 years) . With the dawn of adolescence 
and its sudden physical, mental, and emotional transforma- 
tions, more mature interests arise. The gang or team dom- 
inates much of the play life. Competition is still keen. 
Stumps, stunts, athletic events, and field work make strong 
appeal. Socialization is rapidly effected. Cooperation in the 
adult sense is for the first time characteristic. Capacity for 
leadership and willingness to follow a leader are greatly in- 
creased. The capacity for subordination of self in the interest 
of the team gives evidence of an augmented appreciation of 
social relationship and a feeling of social obligation. The sexes 
begin again to mingle in many of their games, amusements, 
and recreations, and girls become interested spectators at 
the characteristic games of the boys. The interests of the 
adolescent rapidly approach those of adults and are soon to 
be accounted for on the same basis. The proportion of 
games with a marked intellectual element decidedly in- 
creases. Strenuous, active games are still a dominant inter- 
est, but not as in the preceding period to the extent of ex- 
cluding most of the quieter indoor games. Decrease of 
active games is especially marked in the case of girls. Sex 
differences in games and plays, which are so marked at the 
beginning of the period, tend to decrease toward its close. 
With boys, especially, the racial activities of fishing, hunt- 
ing, swimming, camping, exploration, adventure, and the 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 141 

like are very prominent. In this, as in the preceding periods, 
many correlations can be made between games and the edu- 
cative activities of the school with great advantage to the 
child. The teacher who understands, is interested in, and 
can enter into the play life of children, has a tremendous 
advantage over one who cannot. 

Summarizing the effects of the age factor, it may be said 
that age tends to increase the number of games and amuse- 
ments as contrasted with plays. It increases interest in some 
and decreases that in other types of plays and games. Social 
tend to take the place of individualistic games as maturity 
approaches. The complexity of physical and mental activ- 
ities involved in plays and games increases with age and 
more definite and remote ends are sought. The intellectual 
elements in play become increasingly prominent, the player 
becomes more and more conscious of the values of his play 
to him, and to a limited extent may engage in certain games 
and athletic activities with the definite purpose of securing 
these values for himself. This is never true of young chil- 
dren. These and other changes with age make play a valu- 
able index to the progress of mental and social development. 

The sex factor. In infancy, sex differences are negligible. 
There are neither instinctive, physical, nor social reasons 
for differentiation of play interests. This remains relatively 
true during the period of early childhood if play is free, un- 
trammeled, and the influence of older children and adults 
does not make itself too strongly felt. Boys enjoy house and 
doll play almost as much as girls, and the two will play 
together quite as happily as will either with those of his or 
her own sex. The beginning of school life, however, and 
especially the influence of social traditions, soon bring differ- 
entiation of interest after the age of seven is passed. Both 
physical and mental differences, too, increase with increas- 
ing age. 



142 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



From seven years on, Croswell found that girls have a 
larger repertory of amusements which they regularly use. 
Boys are less affected by convention. Boys care more and 
more for games involving contest, strife, and mastery than 
do girls. Of the seven hundred plays mentioned by his two 
thousand children, Croswell found two hundred and seventy- 
two common to both sexes, one hundred and eighty-two 
mentioned by boys alone, and one hundred and ninety-seven 



to 

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Figure 8. Running and Chance Games 

by girls alone, the differences increasing with age at least 
till toward the end of the gang age, during which boys affect 
to despise the interests of girls and follow distinctly mascu- 
line ones. According to McGhee (44), who classified the 
choices of each sex by the elements involved in the games, 
boys prefer games in which running is the dominant element 
far more than girls at every age, the average difference being 
approximately thirty per cent, against five per cent. From 
nine years on, girls choose games involving chance much 
oftener than boys, the difference being ten per cent at thir- 
teen, and thirty-five per cent at eighteen years. Girls exceed 
boys in choice of imitative games till thirteen by an average 
of about ten per cent. In choice of games involving rivalry 
boys exceed girls by an average of approximately twenty 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 



143 



per cent, with a tendency for this difference to disappear 
at maturity. In choice of cooperative games also boys excel 
at every age by more than twenty per cent, and maturity 
increases the disparity. Cooperation and rivalry increase, 
however, and imitation decreases with both sexes as age 
advances. The club and business life of men and women 

TO 
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40 



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AqeZ 7 8 9 *o 77 7z 73" 7<£ 73 s TE~ 7y 79 

l^IGUBE 9. CouPiUBATION AND ItlVALBY IN PLAY 

(Figures 8 and 9 are from McGhee's study, Ped. Sem., vol. 7, pp. 459-78, 
reproduced with permission of G. Stanley Hall.) 

show these same differences, and it remains to be seen 
whether the increasing participation of women in social, 
political, and industrial life will change this apparently 
inherent difference. 

On the theories of either Groos, Hall, or Patrick, sex differ- 
ences are natural and easily explained. In so far as the future 
life of the sexes is to be of necessity different, and in so far 
as the strength and variation of instincts, and of physical 
and mental traits and capacities are diverse, it could not be 
otherwise. Many students of play, however, are of the 
opinion that the girl suffers impairment of her best physical 
development because social custom, restraint, and conven- 



144 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

tion too much Interfere with what is natural and spontane- 
ous. Without these influences the differences would be un- 
questionably less till thirteen than in reality they usually 
are. It cannot be forgotten in this connection, however, 
that in both physical and mental development girls outstrip 
boys of the same age, particularly in the years of early 
adolescence, so that the increasing differentiation of inter- 
ests is in part due to this disparity. As maturity approaches, 
as intellectual interests increase, as the social nature devel- 
ops, the sex differences again become somewhat less marked. 
The differences due to sex alone are sufficiently marked to 
merit attention and deserve consideration in the planning 
of any course in plays and games as well as in direction of 
spontaneous play. 

Racial differences. There is a striking similarity in the 
essential features of play the world over, but still racial 
differences do appear. Croswell even finds such among chil- 
dren of different races of the same city where surroundings 
are relatively uniform, but is of the opinion that they are 
due more to family and racial traditions than to inherent 
differences in the children themselves. Gulick (29) contends 
that the Anglo-Saxon stock manifests more capacity for a 
richness, variety, and intensity of play, particularly of the 
cooperative and group games involving self-subordination, 
loyalty, and self-sacrifice, than is shown by any other racial 
stock. For these qualities he holds that "instinct appears 
to be less sufficient and tradition more important" (p. 143). 
It would seem that in a very true sense he who supervises 
the play of children, as well as those who write the stories 
and the songs, holds a very important place in shaping the 
destinies of a country. It has often been held that the char- 
acter of Britain's greatest men has been formed by the play 
life of Eton, Harrow, Winchester, or Rugby, quite as much 
as by the activities of the schoolroom. 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 145 

The racial factor is without doubt in part a matter of 
geographic location and climatic influences. Certain typical 
games of races living in the far North and in the extreme 
South seem to owe their existence and popularity to climatic 
influences. Once thoroughly established, tradition may 
carry them to other lands and climes. 

The values of play. The values of play are as varied as 
the values of life. The physical, mental, social, moral, and 
religious natures all owe their debt to play. It is difficult to 
overestimate this debt. Play is the school of infancy and 
childhood without whose tutelage formal education could 
accomplish little. Preyer, from his intensive study of in- 
fancy, was convinced that a child learns as much in his first 
three or four years as in his whole university course. The 
time has passed when with our Puritan fathers we can look 
upon play as a waste of time. Rather it is the child who does 
not play whose time is wasted. Many books and special 
articles have recently been written to demonstrate the 
values of play. Both general and specific values have been 
clearly pointed out by Carr (10). We can here barely indi- 
cate these values. 

The recuperative, diversional, and relaxational values of 
play have already been suggested in our discussion of 
Patrick's theory. If there were no other values, play would 
deserve a large place in the life of young and old and would 
find ample justification in the scheme of life. The greater 
the stress and strain of work, the greater the need of the 
relaxation which play most surely furnishes. Sorrow, de- 
pression, painful associations, and distressing circumstances 
are forgotten, and their detrimental effects are at least 
diminished by play as by nothing else. The fatigue incident 
to the deadening routine of many present-day-occupations 
finds here its best antidote. Active plays and games increase 
the vaso-motor reactions, stir to action the healthful emo- 

•V 



146 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

tions which always accompany spontaneous activity, rid 
the body of the accumulated toxins generated by drudgery, 
and so recuperate and revitalize the body and mind. Play 
is an antidote to vice as well. Many a worker at narrow, 
circumscribed, and distasteful tasks may be saved from 
resort to alcohol, narcotics, drugs, and other harmful stimu- 
lants by being taught to find relaxation, diversion, and stim- 
ulation in proper physical play. 

Many writers from Aristotle down have held that play 
furnishes catharsis of the emotions, purges both body and 
mind of detrimental impulses, normalizes, and sanifies. On 
the theory of catharsis certain strong instinctive tendencies, 
now no longer useful in their primitive form, require to be 
exercised in attenuated and modified ways until their pe- 
riod of nascency has passed and control of them has been 
attained. To illustrate, the pugnacious tendencies of boys 
find suitable exercise in football, boxing, and wrestling, in- 
stead of being allowed to run riot in quarrels and fights. If 
allowed proper opportunity to explore, collect, fish, swim, 
hunt, to care for and train pets, and the like, boys have less 
tendency to destroy or steal property, to torment animals, 
or commit other anti-social acts. The decided decrease in 
anti-social outbreaks, when ample opportunity for play is 
provided by public playgrounds, is one of the best arguments 
for the theory. Regular and suitable work, also, as Carr 
(10, p. 18) has shown, accomplishes the same ends. Idle- 
ness, vagrancy, and unsuitable employment are the sources 
of many harmful responses from which work and play may 
give catharsis. We shall be wise if we provide merely the 
opportunity for legitimate outlet for childish energy; we 
shall be still wiser when we plan to furnish suitable catharsis 
for the emotions and instincts and at the same time to turn 
this energy to positive and constructive ends. 

There is no denying that play does give preparatory exer- 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 147 

cise and practice, as Groos holds, to many instincts and 
habits, and so prepares in a broad way for a useful, happy 
and normal life. Play is educative in far more effective and 
varied ways than most parents and teachers have yet recog- 
nized. It cultivates the senses, the powers of perception, 
observation, imagination, trains the judgment, increases by 
exercise the capacity for inventiveness, and trains the 
exploring, adventurous, creative powers of mind that are so 
favorable to the development of genius in industry and 
business. 

Plays and games form character and mould the soul in 
varied and most effective ways. There is scarcely a virtue 
that is not born and reared to sturdy strength through 
suitable and timely play. Self-control, self-reliance, self- 
subordination, cooperation, loyalty, self-assertion, self- 
direction, capacity to lead and willingness to follow, are 
necessary virtues learned nowhere so readily and so surely. 
Justice, honesty, respect for the rights of others, the neces- 
sity for and the binding nature of law, and all those princi- 
ples, recognition of which complex social and industrial life 
demands, come as by-products of rightly conducted play. 
Dramatization and imitation of adult activities give the 
best of insight into the duties and responsibilities of citizen- 
ship and train for them far better than mere instruction. 
Hall's Story of a Sand Pile is an excellent illustration of the 
varied and specific ways in which play under favorable con- 
ditions may prepare for citizenship by giving suitable prac- 
tice to its essential activities. 

Dewey (20), Miss Curtis (19), and many others have 
shown the way in which play socializes. Gregariousness is 
an inborn tendency, but the gregarious tendencies must 
have suitable exercise. Complete socialization is with chil- 
dren a slow process, as it was with the race. It does not come 
fully except by the freest exercise, which play best furnishes, 



148 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

of that give-and-take experience which gives insight into 
the motives, desires, ideals, interests, and capacities of others 
as well as of one's self. The lack of complete socialization, 
which Bohannon has shown often characterizes the only- 
child in a family, suggests how without the freest associa- 
tion with other children the social nature may be stunted. 
Imitative, dramatic, and traditional plays and games are 
especially important means of transmission from generation 
to generation of the vast and ever increasing social heritage. 

The physical and hygienic values of play have been 
longest' recognized. Growth itself, and still more the devel- 
opment of parts and organs, is furthered and normalized 
by suitable play. Ripening instincts furnish motive power 
through which motor responses are made again and again 
till coordinations are perfected, the muscles developed, and 
medullation of nerve fibers completed. Digestion, respira- 
tion, circulation — all the vital processes are stimulated to 
healthy activity under most favorable conditions. Physical 
endurance, resistance to fatigue, sex normality, strength 
and health are all direct results of a free and complete play 
life. Finally, we have begun to learn that body training is 
mind training; that exercise of muscles increases not merely 
the muscles, but the size, responsiveness, and capacity of 
nerve cells as well. 

The play responses are peculiarly valuable further, as 
Carr (10, pp. 27-36) has shown, due to the following facts: 
(1) play reactions are easier than those of work, because 
they involve the oldest and oftenest used centers; (2) play 
brings a greater amount of activity because it is easier, more 
pleasurable, and less fatiguing than work; (3) the intensity 
of response is greater because attention is undivided and 
spontaneous, and therefore interest keener; (4) play is a 
better stimulant to growth and development than work, 
because it meets nature's demands in a natural and timely 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 149 

way; (5) play is the most variable of all reactions, and thus 
provides constant and suitable exercise of all important 
physical and mental activities. For these and other reasons 
the child must play or he cannot become man. With Plato 
we can say, "education should begin with the right direction 
of children's sports.' ' 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Is play an instinct? Give reasons for your answer. 

2. State the theory of play in a way that is satisfactory to you. 

3. Explain clearly the relations between play, work, and drudgery. 

4. Observe carefully and make notes on the spontaneous play of the 
children in your neighborhood. Note age and sex differences; seasonal 
factors; cases of imitation and of leadership; persistence of particular 
plays; social elements; degree of interest, attention, and effort displayed. 

5. Formulate a detailed characterization of the play life of children of 
some one period; e.g., the kindergarten age, or adolescence. 

6. Make a careful study of some child who does not play normally. How 
does he differ in other ways from other children? How do you ac- 
count for his lack of interest in play? 

7. Make a survey of the play facilities in your immediate neighborhood. 
In what respects are they adequate and suitable, in what respects are 
they inadequate? Suggest improvements. 

8. Do the same for the school in your neighborhood. 

9. Enumerate the advantages resulting from the use of the play spirit 
in school work. Disadvantages. 

10. Present arguments for and against the leadership of children's play 
by adults. 

11. Explain how an activity calling for the expenditure of a tremendous 
amount of energy, to the point of exhaustion, may yet be properly 
called play. Illustrate. 

12. Which is the better policy for the future, to increase the number of 
independent public playgrounds and the variety of their activities, 
or to increase the size, use, and organization of the school playgrounds 
under direction of the school authorities? Give reasons for your answer. 



SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. Archer, R. A. "Spontaneous Constructions and Primitive Activi- 
ties of Children Analogous to those of Primitive Man"; in Amer. 
Jour. Psy., vol. 21, pp. 114 50. 



150 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

2. Addams, Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. (1909.) 

Especially pp. 51-106. 

3. Angell, E. Play. (1912.) 199 pp. 

*4. Appleton, L. E. A Comparative Study of the Play Activities of Adult 
Savages and Civilized Children. (1910.) 94 pp. (Bibliography.) 

5. Blow, Susan E. Symbolic Education (1894), pp. 111-45. 

6. Bolton, H. C. Counting-Out Rhymes of Children. (1888.) 121 pp. 

7. Burk, Mrs. C. F. "The Collecting Instinct"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 7, 

pp. 179-207. 

8. Burnham, W. H. "The Hygiene of Physical Training"; in Amer. 

Phys. Educ. Rev. f vol. 14, pp. 468-78; 521-28; 600-08. 

9. Cabot, R. C. "The Soul of Play"; in The Playground, vol. 4, pp. 

285-93. 

10. Carr, H. A. "The Survival Values of Play"; in Invest, of the Dept. 

of Psy. of the Univ. of Colo. f vol. 1, pp. 1-47. 

11. Chamberlain, A. F. The Child (1900), pp. 10-27. 

12. Chambers, W. G. "Why Children Play"; in Proc. N.E.A. (1909), 

pp. 720-26. 

13. Chase, J. H. "Street Games of New York Children"; in Ped. Sem., 

vol. 12, pp. 503-04. 

14. Claparede, Ed. Experimental Pedagogy and the Psychology of the Child 

(1911), pp. 102-38. 

15. Compayre, G. Intellectual and Moral Development of the Child. 

Part v., Later Infancy (1902), pp. 141-52. 
*16. Croswell, T. R. "Amusements of Two Thousand Worcester School 

Children"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 6, pp. 314-71. 
*F .. Curtis, H. S. Education Through Play. (1915.) 359 pp. 
*18. Curtis, H. S. Play and Recreation for the Open Country. (1914.) 

265 pp. 
*19. Curtis, Miss E. W. The Dramatic Instinct in Education. (1914.) 

246 pp. 

20. Dewey, J. "Play"; in Monroes Cyclo. of Educ., 1912, vol. 4, pp. 

725-27. 

21. Eastman, C. Indian Boyhood (1911), pp. 63-98. 

22. Folsom, J. K "The Scientific Play World of a Child"; in Ped. 

Sem., vol. 22, pp. 161-82. 
*23. Forbush, W. B. Manual of Play. (1914.) 353 pp. 

24. Gillin, J. L. "The Sociology of Recreation"; in Am. Jour, of Sociol., 

vol. 19, pp. 825-34. 

25. Gomme, Alice B. Dictionary of British Folk-Lore. Part I, vols. 1 and 2 

Especially vol. 2, pp. 458-531. (1898.) 
*26. Groos, K. The Play of Animals. (1898.) 341 pp. 
*27. Groos, K. The Play of Man. (1901.) 412 pp. 
28. Guillet, C. "Recapitulation and Education"; in Ped. Sem. t vol. 7, 

pp. 397-445. 



THE PLAY OF CHILDREN 151 

29. Gulick, L. "Psychological, Pedagogical, and Religious Aspects of 

Group Games "; in Ped. Sem., vol. 6, pp. 135-51. 

30. Hall, G. S. Adolescence. (1904.) Especially vol. 1, pp. 129-236; vol. 2, 

pp. 202-36. 

31. Hall, G. S. Youth (1906), pp. 73-119. 

*32. Hall, G. S., and pupils. Aspects of Child Life and Education. (1907.) 
326 pp. Especially, "The Story of a Sand Pile," Hall; "A Study 
of Dolls," Hall and Ellis; "The Collecting Instinct," Burk; "Fe- 
tichism in Children," Ellis. 

33. Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. (1911.) Vol. 1, chap, v, "The 

Educational Value of Dancing and Pantomime," pp. 42-90. 

34. Hall, G. S. "Recreation and Reversion"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 22, pp. 

510-20. 

35. Henderson, E. N. Principles of Education (1910), pp. 283-426. 

*S6. Johnson, G. E. "Education by Plays and Games"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 

3, pp. 97-135. 
37. Johnson, G. E. Education by Plays and Games. (1907.) 234 pp. 

(Bibliography.) 
33. Johnson, J. "Rudimentary Society among Boys"; in Johns Hopkins 

Univ. Studies in Hist, and Pol. Sci., vol. 2, pp. 495-546. 

39. Kidd, D. Savage Childhood (1906), pp. 159-84; 301-04. 

40. Lee, J. Play in Education. (1915.) 500 pp. 

41. Major, D. R. First Steps in Mental Growth (1906), pp. 239-49; 352-55. 

42. Mangold, G. B. Problems of Child Welfare (1914), pp. 166-88. 

43. McDougall, W. Social Psychology (1912), pp. 107-16; 345-46. 

*44. McGhee, Z. "A Study in the Play Life of Some South Carolina Chil- 
dren"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 7, pp. 459-78. 

45. Newell, W. W. The Games and Songs of American Children (1903), 

pp. 1-36. 

46. O'Shea, M. V. Social Development and Education (1909), pp. 295- 

320. 

47. Parmelee, M. The Science of Human Behavior (1913), pp. 245-55. 

48. Patrick, G. T. W. "The Psychology of Play"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 21, 

pp. 469-84. 
*49. Patrick, G. T. W. The Psychology of Relaxation. (1916.) Especially 
pp. 29-95. (Bibliography.) 

50. Pyle, W. H. The Outlines of Educational Psychology (1912), pp. 91- 

107. 

51. Seashore, C. E. Psychology in Daily Life (1914), pp. 1-37. 

52. Sheldon, H. D. "Institutional Activities of American Children"; in 

Am. Jour. Psy., vol. 9, pp. 425-48. 

53. Sisson, Miss G. "Children's Plays" in Barnes's Studies in Education 

(1897), vol. 1, pp. 171-74. 

54. Smith, P. A. "Some Phases of the Play of Japanese Boys and Men"; 

in Ped. Sem., vol. 16, pp. 256-67. 



15% CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

55. Sully, J. Studies in Childhood (1895), pp. 35-51. 

56. Swift, E. J. Youth and the Race (1912), pp. 3-40. 

57. Tanner, Miss A. The Child (1915), pp. 487-512. (Bibliography.) 

58. Thomas, W. I. "The Gaming Instinct"; in Am. Jour. Sociol., vol. 6, 

pp. 750-63. 

59. Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology; Briefer Course (1914), pp. 

59-68. 

60. Wood, W. Children's Play and its Place in Education. (1913.) 218 

pp. 

61. The Playground. Official organ of The Playground and Recreation 

Association of America, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN 

Definition. In a broad sense the term language includes 
every means by which thought is symbolized so as to convey 
meaning or serve the purposes of communication. When we 
wish to designate that specialized form of language in which 
the articulate sounds we call words are used, it is better 
to employ the term speech. We shall, then, include under the 
term language such means of communication as signs, ges- 
tures, facial expressions, attitudes, pantomime, exclamatory 
emotional sounds, articulate speech by means of words, and 
such other forms of expression as writing, drawing, painting, 
modeling, carving, building, and the like, whenever these 
are used to convey ideas, meanings, emotions, or to arouse 
responses in others. 

Language, in the sense in which we use the term, is pos- 
sessed by many animals besides man. The ants are thought 
to communicate by means of their antennae; birds by means 
of cries and calls; dogs by a variety of cries, whines, atti- 
tudes, pantomime, and even facial expression; monkeys and 
apes, according to Mr. Garner (12, p. 258), who has studied 
the subject most closely, by similar means and, in addition, 
among the highest species, by articulate sounds and "words" 
to the number of twenty-five or thirty. But, in spite of the 
fact that an elemental form of language is possessed by all 
the higher animals, the capacity for speech separates human- 
ity from other forms of animal life by a greater gap than 
does any other capacity. We must admit the kinship of 
humanity with other forms of life, we can find fruitful sug- 
gestions as to the origin of speech in our race in the study of 



154 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

animal language, we may frankly admit that Mr. Garner's 
apes possess greater power of speech than the average hu- 
man infant of one year of age, and yet feel perfectly safe in 
our belief that the invention of articulate speech and the 
perfecting of its use is the greatest single intellectual accom- 
plishment of the human race, and marks most clearly its 
superiority over every species of animal. This invention, 
and the much later one of written and printed symbols for 
its graphic embodiment, have separated humanity from 
other living forms by what appears to be an impassable 
barrier. 

Articulate and written speech are rated so high because 
by their use we are largely freed from the narrow, circum- 
scribed, limited means of expression possessed by other 
animals. By their use we largely annihilate time and space. 
By their use we have opened to us the practically infinite 
possibilities of symbolization of ideas and images. By their 
use we can deal with the abstract as well as the concrete, so 
that the mind is not only freed from limitations, but is en- 
larged and developed in the process of speaking. 

Theories of origin. Extended discussion of the theories 
of the origin of language would be out of place here. Those 
who care for a full statement of the theories will find good 
summaries in Chamberlain (4, pp. 113 ff.) and Judd (20, pp. 
248 ff.). No theory has yet been proposed which is wholly 
satisfactory. When we get such a one it is likely to be psy- 
chological and evolutionary. Psychologists and philologists 
have long recognized that the similarity between speech 
development in the child and the race makes it probable 
that a study of child language is the best means now avail- 
able for the settling of the difficult problem of origins. This 
conviction has been the stimulus of much of the recent 
Careful study of the evolution of child language. 

The onomatopoeic origin of many words with both the 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 155 

race and the child cannot be denied, and yet the theory that 
speech arose wholly from this tendency cannot be admitted. 
Interjections, made peculiarly expressive by varying into- 
nations, are a marked feature of both primitive and child 
speech, and yet to hold that all speech so originated is un- 
questionably a partial and narrow view. Following the 
contention of Henri, that the problem of the origin of 
speech is perhaps as much a matter of anatomy and physi- 
ology as it is a linguistic one, Lefeve finds the origin of 
speech in the differentiation of instinctive cries. As quoted 
by Chamberlain (4, p. 119) he says: — 

Animals possess two of the important elements of language — 
the spontaneous reflex cry of emotion or need, the voluntary cry 
of warning, threat, or summons. From these two sorts of utter- 
ance, man, endowed already with a richer vocal apparatus and a 
more developed brain, evolved numerous varieties by means of 
stress, reduplication, intonation. The warning or summoning cry, 
the germ of the demonstrative roots, is the parent of the names of 
numbers, sex and distance; the emotional cry, of which our simple 
interjections are but the relics, in combination with the demon- 
stratives, prepares the outlines of the sentence, and already repre- 
sents the verb and the names of states or actions. Imitation, direct 
or symbolical, and necessarily only approximative of the sounds of 
external nature, i.e., onomatopoeia, furnished the elements of the 
attributive roots, from which arise the names of objects, special 
verbs, and their derivatives. Analogy and metaphor complete the 
vocabulary, applying to the objects discerned by touch, sight, 
smell, and taste qualifying adjectives derived from onomatopoeia. 
Reason then coming into play rejects the greater part of this un- 
manageable wealth, and adopts a certain number of sounds which 
have already been reduced to a vague and generic sense; and by 
derivation, composition, and affixes, the root sounds produce those 
endless families of words, related to each other in every degree of 
kindred, from the closest to the most doubtful, which grammar 
finally arranges in the categories known as the parts of speech. 

Interesting and suggestive as are all these theories, there 
are unquestionably other factors in speech development 



156 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

which future theories must consider. That the speech de- 
velopment of both child and race has well-marked evolu- 
tionary stages all studies seem clearly to show. In all prob- 
ability speech and ideational processes developed together 
in the race as now they do in the infant. Imitation helps 
to a rapid acquirement of the social inheritance, but true 
speech develops only as mentality enlarges, in fact its mas- 
tery is one of the surest indications of intelligence. 

Ontogenesis of speech. The most interesting phase of 
linguistic study is that which concerns itself with the acquire- 
ment of speech by the child. The number of careful studies in 
this field has multiplied very rapidly in recent years, and 
some facts regarding this phase of development have already 
become pretty well established. It is our purpose in this 
section to give a brief resume of these studies and the more 
important conclusions which can be drawn from them. 

Tracy (46) long ago pointed out that the capacity for 
speech is dependent upon physiological and psychological 
factors, the absence of either of which makes speech impos- 
sible. In the first place, the child must possess the speech 
mechanism, made up of the lungs and air passages, the 
larynx, tongue, teeth, palate, oral and nasal cavities, the 
three groups of muscles producing respectively the move- 
ments of respiration, vocalization, and articulation, and 
finally the nerve elements, both central and peripheral, 
which integrate and preside over the activity of the whole 
mechanism. This complex neuro-physiological mechanism 
must not only be present but must be in fairly normal con- 
dition in all its parts, functionally mature enough to operate 
as a unit, and most important of all it must be to some de- 
gree under control before real speech can be begun. By real 
speech we mean the conscious use of words as the symbols 
of ideas. On the psychic side there must be emotions, ideas, 
experiences seeking expression, and a large amount of spon- 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 157 

taneous, playful exercise of the speech mechanism before it 
can be controlled or used for purposes of voluntary speech. 
So, as Tracy (46) suggests, to the interesting question, 
"Why does the newborn child not speak?" we may reply 
that he has no ideas and few emotions calling for expression, 
and that if he had he would be unable to express them in 
speech because of the imperfection of his speech mechanism 
and the lack of control over it. In short, he has nothing to 
say and could not say it if he had. The teeth, so important 
to enunciation especially of the dental consonants, are en- 
tirely lacking; breathing is purely automatic, and diaphrag- 
matic rather than costal; phonation is reflex and involun- 
tary or non-voluntary at first. The size, shape, and relation 
of the parts of the larynx, throat, and the oral and nasal cav- 
ities are very different from those of the adult, so that exact 
imitation is out of the question. The action of the three 
groups of muscles controlling the speech mechanism is at 
first entirely involuntary, those of phonation especially never 
becoming wholly voluntary. The ear, without the help of 
which true speech is not normally acquired, only attains its 
directive capacity after months of schooling. Imitation, 
which is the basal capacity so far as acquirement of the 
social heritage of speech is concerned, does not play an im- 
portant part for months. These and other like facts which 
any one may easily observe should give us some conception 
of the difficulties which children surmount in their mastery 
of speech. Knowledge of the difficulties to be encountered 
should enable the parent and teacher to remove to some 
extent many unnecessary obstacles. 

Heredity and speech. The ability to acquire speech is an 
inborn capacity, the attainment of which depends upon 
many factors in the child's environment. We cannot call 
speech an instinct if we use the term in a properly restricted 
sense. Children are never born with a form of speech, but 



158 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

merely with the physical mechanism and the psychic poten- 
tialities which enable them to acquire speech under the 
stimulus of the instincts of physical and mental activity, 
the impulse to play and to imitate, and under the spur of 
necessities bound up closely with the gregarious instinct. 
The Chinese infant, with thousands of years of pure Chinese 
ancestry back of him, acquires, if reared from the day of his 
birth in an English-speaking family, the English speech with 
no more difficulty than he would his parents' tongue. The 
child born deaf does not learn to speak except with the 
greatest difficulty and after the most careful training, al- 
though he acquires the more primitive forms of linguistic 
expression without other help than that afforded by exam- 
ples which he can imitate. Speech must not, then, be 
thought of as an instinct, but as a habit with a strong in- 
stinctive basis. 

First steps in speaking. Miss Shinn (39) points out that 
the first three words of her niece were some months in proc- 
ess of evolution before they came to be real words expressive 
of "a natural cry of pointing out" — "Da!" the protean 
forerunner of our "There!"; "a natural negative" — "Na- 
na-na!" later to merge into our "No!"; and "a natural 
expression of baby need and dependence" — "Ma-ma-ma," 
or, "ilfom-TTiom-mom," gradually associating itself with 
the baby's mother as the satisfier of wants, and after some 
teaching settled into the word which possesses the richest 
of all associations — the word "Mamma" or "Mother." 
Thus babble and chatter of the pre-linguistic period gradu- 
ally turned to special uses and the child began its first steps 
in speech. Even in these first steps it seems clear that Miss 
Shinn's contention, that the first words are exclamations 
for the relief of the child's mind much more than they are 
means of communication, has much in its favor. Her fourth 
word, after many variations, settled into "Gong" meaning 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 159 

disappearance, absence, failure, etc. The fifth word of this 
child, — "Kha" — an expression of disgust, was learned 
by imitation directly, as is most of the later vocabulary, 
if exceptions be made of some "invented" words. These 
five words made up the entire vocabulary of the first year 
of the heroine of The Biography of a Baby. Thus Miss 
Shinn thinks the baby begins "slowly to turn some of his 
commonest chattering sounds to special uses — not to carry 
thought to other people, but as mere exclamations to relieve 
his own mind." Miss Shinn's description is typical of the 
first steps in mastery of speech with every child. 

Linguistic stages. Many psychologists have attempted to 
name and describe definite stages in the development of 
speech. While there are minor differences in details there is 
practical agreement upon the more important stages. All 
of the more or less elaborate classifications present at least 
the following stages which we adapt from many published 
studies: (1) A reflex period of involuntary preliminary exer- 
cise of the speech mechanism seen in cries, gestures, and artic- 
ulate babble which is in no true sense consciously expressive, 
still less communicative; (2) a period of developing under- 
standing of articulate sounds, marked toward its close by 
imitative and playful babble of a spontaneous sort; (3) a 
period of development of facility in thought expression by 
means of words. It is not difficult to recognize well-marked 
subdivisions of each of these stages. One of the most useful 
and suggestive statements of the speech stages is that of 
Pelsma (61), to whom we are indebted for the names and 
descriptions which are now to be given. 

(I) Reflex. A short stage in which undifferentiated cries, 
gestures, "coos," and the like are made spontaneously, 
without recognition of their expressive or communicative 
value. The actual differentiation of the primitive "a" cry 
of the infant has by most observers been found to take 
place between the third and the fifth weeks. 



160 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

(2) Cry and gesture stage. With the advent of the infant's 
first true smile, which is usually noted sometime near the 
third month, his awareness of his environment, especially 
of the world of people, is clearly evidenced. This much- 
looked-for event has been thought to signalize a new atti- 
tude, and to mark the beginning of at least crudely purpose- 
ful use of the primitive means of expressing thought and 
emotion — cries, gestures, facial expression, and the like. 

(3) Babbling. When definite, purposeful reactions to his 
environing world begin, the part played by vocalization in 
such responses rapidly assumes an important place. The 
first step toward true speech is taken when vocal responses 
are made to the vocal stimulus of the mother's voice. Of 
first importance, therefore, in the preparation for true speech 
is the period of playful exercise of the speech mechanism, 
commonly known as the period of linguistic play or the 
babble period. From purely spontaneous babble the infant 
soon passes to imitative babble, learning rapidly meanwhile 
the communicative value of sounds and perfecting his con- 
trol of his speech mechanism. 

(4) Imitation. Beginning in purely mechanical, imitative 
babble, and passing rapidly to conscious learning of spoken 
words, this stage is the keystone of the arch of the linguistic 
structure, one side of which is based on physical and mental 
inheritance, the other on social heredity. 

(5) Plateau. A transition period which many observers 
have found to be a feature of learning curves in general 
seems usually to be found also in the mastery of speech. 
The rate of progress is retarded, or may even decline, but a 
perfecting and settling of what has already been acquired 
seems to take place. Since this stage is as a rule coincident 
with the acquirement of creeping and walking it is reason- 
able to assume that the child's attention and energy is 
turned into these other channels to the temporary loss of 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 161 

progress in speech. These activities, however, so enrich 
experience and mental content as to be very significant as 
stimuli to later progress. 

(6) Expression, True speech has begun when, with a 
consciousness of the meaning and value of words, the child 
begins purposively to use them to express or to communi- 
cate his thoughts and feelings. When this point is reached 
all the rest of his immature years are devoted to the perfect- 
ing of this power. A few of the significant facts concerning 
the mastery of the mother tongue will be discussed in the 
following pages. 

The age limits to be assigned to the various speech stages 
are not easily determined because of individual differences, 
and the fact that each as a rule merges into the succeeding 
stage gradually and almost imperceptibly. It is perhaps suf- 
ficient to say that the first stage begins as soon as the child 
is born; that the second appears in a few days or weeks at 
most; that the third is at its height from six to eight months 
usually; that the fourth begins during the third period and 
becomes a factor of increasing importance, really overlapping 
all succeeding stages; that the fifth is reached sometime be- 
tween nine and eighteen months, varying with the time of 
walking, and that the sixth normally begins early in the 
second year and has reached a well-developed state by the 
beginning of the third year. Certain other suggested periods 
we shall now briefly consider. 

Secret languages. There have been noted within the stage 
of expression several rather well-marked periods, such as 
those of "secret language," and of "slanguage." From an 
extended study of five hundred "secret languages" of chil- 
dren, Dr. Chrisman (7) finds, in addition to the "invention" 
of many words at or shortly after the time the child has well 
begun the learning of the mother tongue, a distinct "secret 
language" period. The invention or use, or both, of secret 



102 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

languages seems to be well-nigh universal between the ages 
of eight and fifteen, with especial prominence between ten 
and thirteen years. Many of these "languages" are passed 
down from generation to generation of children. Some are 
originated by small groups, and in a few instances have been 
known almost to crowd out the use of the mother tongue for 
a time. Many of these attempts at linguistic creation are 
crude, artificial, and nonsensical perversions of the mother 
tongue. On the other hand, Hale (5, p. 137) found some 
which possess all the characteristics of real, live, growing lan- 
guages. This trait of children has been considered to have 
theoretical importance as suggesting a means of explaining 
the origin of dialects and new linguistic stocks. For our 
purpose perhaps the most important deduction is the con- 
tention of Chrisman, that, next to the period at which chil- 
dren acquire naturally their mother tongue, the "secret 
language" period is most favorable for the acquirement of 
a foreign language. The plasticity of the speech function in 
both its physiological and psychic sides, coupled with the 
strong innate interest in that which is strange, new, or dif- 
ferent, gives a most favorable opportunity to the teacher 
of a foreign tongue. 

Slang. The tendency to "invention" has also its unde- 
sirable phases. Whether it be the "baby talk" of infancy 
and early childhood, the "hog-Latin" or "pidgin-English" 
of the secret language period, the lover's lingo of later ado- 
lescence, or the use of slang which in some circles, as among 
sailors, criminals, and at certain ages among all classes, re- 
sults in the mother tongue being almost superseded by what 
has been termed "slanguage," there is serious danger that 
the mastery of the mother tongue will be definitely retarded 
if not permanently affected. It has even been suggested that 
mental growth and the development of intelligence may be 
thus impaired. Conradi (9), Secrist (37), Melville (26), and 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 163 

others find the slang period, if such there is, to attain its 
high point at about the beginning of the onset of puberty. 
It is believed that the wonderfully rapid expansion of intel- 
lectual and emotional life at this time, which outruns the 
power of expression, creates the natural demand for new, 
striking, unusual, and more expressive terms than the con- 
ventional ones, and a craze for slang is the result. If this 
be true there should be no more favorable time for the use 
of every good teaching device to enrich, refine, and enlarge 
the child's vocabulary. Language teaching at this period 
should have this object as one of its chief aims. 

Vocabularies of children. The studies that have thrown 
most light on child language are those of the acquisition of 
vocabulary. In 1907 Doran (56) summarized thirty-six such 
studies. In 1910 Pelsma (61) reports on seventy-two, and 
Grant (57) in 1915, tabulates the results of a total of eighty- 
five. New studies are appearing frequently, so that the 
number is likely soon to exceed one hundred. The investi- 
gations are becoming more valuable because of refinement 
of method and attack on new problems. The years covered 
by the published vocabulary studies range chiefly between 
one and five, with the greater number in the earlier years. 
In a number of cases estimates have been made of the vocab- 
ulary of the same child at several different periods. Very 
few attempts to make accurate estimates of the vocabularies 
of children of school age are on record. 

It is too early to draw many trustworthy generalizations 
from these studies, for several reasons. The number is, as 
yet, too small. The methods by which they have been made 
are too diverse. The underlying purpose of the studies has 
also varied considerably, so that the observer's report has 
been affected in such a way as to make his material difficult 
to compare with that of others. In spite of necessary caution 
and scientific reserve, however, a number of tentative con- 



164 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

elusions may be stated, particularly for the first three years. 
We must content ourselves for the present with a statement 
of the generally accepted methods for such work, a brief 
summary of the concrete data, the statement of a few tenta- 
tive generalizations, and a few suggestions as to the value 
parents and teachers may expect to find in such studies as 
have been made or of such as they may make for themselves. 

Methods of study. The recorded vocabularies of children 
have been secured by the use of one or all of the following 
procedures : The observer usually prepares a notebook with 
a page for each letter of the alphabet, subdividing the pages 
into spaces for the various parts of speech according to their 
known frequency. The observer then plans to be with the 
child constantly during his waking hours, or to have a quali- 
fied substitute to take his place, for a period of at least two 
or three weeks near the child's birthday, or at the mid-year 
period. This length of time allows the observer to place the 
child in a variety of situations so that the different environ- 
ments may, by presenting varied stimuli and evoking va- 
ried interests and emotions, call forth the fullest spontane- 
ous use of the speech capacity. If care and discretion are 
used, it seems fairly certain that for the early years one may, 
in a few weeks, secure practically complete lists of the words 
which the child can use with at least a fair conception of 
their meaning. It should be said that great care is needed to 
avoid the listing of words used in a mechanically imitative 
way, without any idea of their meaning. Carelessness in this 
matter may result in unjustified padding of the vocabulary 
list. 

After the preliminary preparation, most of the observers 
follow the plan outlined by Pelsma (61), making record 
without delay of: (1) words used with evident conception 
of their meaning in daily conversations between the child 
and the observer, or other persons; (2) words used in re- 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 1G5 

sponse to questions carefully formulated, so as not to give 
the word or words knowledge of which is being tested; for 
example, such questions as, "What is this?" "What is 
papa doing?" and the like; (3) words used when objects or 
activities are brought to the child's attention without ques- 
tions, in such ways as to cause him to name them or speak 
about them; (4) words used in spontaneous monologue or in 
conversations with other children, real or imaginary, when 
the child is oblivious to the presence of the observer. Some 
observers list at later periods words that were used at an 
earlier one, and some make systematic use of previously 
published vocabularies of other children asking questions 
or presenting situations to determine the knowledge or ig- 
norance, of the child under observation, of the words in 
question. It should be noted that the procedures followed, 
the time taken for the study, and possibly other factors will 
affect the results, and yet it is doubtful whether any of the 
observers of children past two years of age secure entirely 
complete lists. It is also unquestionably true that the vocab- 
ulary understood by the child is much larger than his spoken 
vocabulary. Exact summaries of the existing lists are prob- 
ably somewhat inaccurate and in some respects misleading. 
If, however, the reader will bear in mind that averages are 
of little value where numbers are small, and that in a field 
such as this the matter of individual differences, with the 
probable reasons for them, is of greater interest and impor- 
tance than averages, we may venture to indicate what the 
published studies show. In using the accompanying table 
it must be further understood that some observers exclude 
proper nouns, while others include them; that some list 
verb forms only once, while others list infinitive and parti- 
cipial forms as separate words; that some include "invented " 
words, while others exclude them. For these and other rea- 
sons more value attaches to careful examination of one or 



166 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



Table I 
Average Vocabularies at Different Ages 



Age 



1 year 

2 years 

3 years 

4 years 

5 years 

6 years 



No. of 
cases 


Ave, no. of 
words 


Extrt 








Least 


10 


8.9 


3 


20 


528 


115 


8 


1407 


681 


6 


2171 


1020 


1 


6837 




1 


8950 





Greatest 

24 
1127 

2282 
8915 



two individual vocabularies in detail than to the study 
of averages now available. 

Use of parts of speech. One of the much-discussed points 
about vocabularies is that of the relative number of the vari- 
ous parts of speech found in the vocabulary as a whole and 
as actually used, and especially the changes that take place 
with age. Estimates differ widely, for various reasons. In 
early speech there is almost total disregard of grammatical 
form and usage. The first words are as a rule "sentence 
words," as Sully (41, p. 171), Lukens (22), and others have 
clearly shown. A single word conveys a variety of meanings, 
depending upon intonation, inflection, accompanying ges- 
tures, facial expression, pantomime, and similar factors. 
The pronoun "me" often performs the function of such sen- 
tences as "Take me up," "I want to ride," "Give me the 
book," "Let me go with you"; the preposition "up" may 
mean at one time, "I want you to give me my ball," or 
again, "I want you to put me up in my chair." Lukens (22) 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 



167 



cites many examples of functional misuse of parts of speech, 
of which the following are typical: "It wps out its false feet" 
(said of an amceba seen under the microscope); "a chop" 
(axe); "the hurt blooded"; "Can I be sorried?" (i.e., for- 
given) ; " What is the reason you want to dead that fly? " — 
" to die that fly?" — "to make it dead?" (22, p. 454). Thus 
nouns play the part of verbs and, vice versa 9 adjectives play 
a verbal function, etc. For these and other reasons classifi- 
cation of the child's words under the conventional parts of 
speech is usually more or less misleading. Keeping the facts 
just mentioned in mind, the accompanying tables may still 
have some value. 



Table II 

Parts of Speech in Child Vocabularies 
(Expressed in percentages) 



Cases 


Age 


Total Ate. 
vocabulary 


Nouns 


Verbs 


Adj. 


Ado. 


Pro. 


Prep. 


Conj. 


ltd. ; 


10 
20 

8 

6 


1 

2 
3 
4 
5 
6 


8.8 
528 
1407 
2171 

6837 
3950 


65.3 

58.9 

55.59 

53.6 

56.8 

48. 


6.9 

20.8 
23.1 
25. 
19.3 

24. 


5.1 

9.79 
10.8 
12. 


12.8 
4.88 
5.1 
5.1 




1.9 
2.2 
1.45 




1.44 
1.4 
1. 



.21 

.6 
.66 


9.8 
1.87 

.9 

.9 


1 

1 


21.8 
10. 3.4 


.9 


2. 
.6 


17 
.2 


.5 



We have found forty-six vocabulary studies in which- 
the distribution of the parts of speech has been indicated. 
Our table is a summary of the facts. Examination of the 
averages shows that interjectional speech is characteristic 
at the beginning; that nouns are acquired early in rela- 
tively large numbers; that from the first year on the ver- 



168 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



bal element is relatively very large, the relative proportion 
of adverbs to adjectives being also greater than later; that 
personal pronouns, relative pronouns, and other subordi- 
nating and connective words are acquired with difficulty, 
but, owing to the relatively restricted vocabulary of chil- 
dren, still occupy a proportionately larger place than in the 
language, as Table III shows, if we accept the estimate of 
Kirkpatrick. A recent estimate by Brandenburg (53) shows 
a much closer resemblance between child vocabularies and 
the dictionary, especially as regards the supposed prepon- 
derance of verbal elements with children. 



Table III 

Estimates of Parts of Speech in the Dictionary 
(Expressed in percentages) 



Authority 


Nouns 


Verba 


Adj. 


Adv. 


Prep. 


Pro. 


Conj. 


Int. 


Kirkpatrick 

Brandenburg 


60. 
48.4 

42. 


11. 

27.5 

30. 


22. 
18.6 

8. 


5.5 
4.9 

10. 


.1 

4. 


1.5 

.2 .1 1 .05 


Wolff's boy's 

dictionary 


6. 



The report by Miss Wolff (49) of a dictionary made spon- 
taneously by a boy of seven shows an excessive interest in 
words that "clearly express definite action," seventy-five 
per cent of the 215 words attempted belonging to this 
class. 

Several writers have shown that far more significant than 
the percentage of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., in the 
child's whole vocabulary is the percentage of each that he 
actually uses in connected speech. Mrs. Moore (29, p. 136) 
found that of 661 words used in one series of sentences, 43.4 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 



169 



per cent were nouns or pronouns, 24.8 per cent verbs, 9.5 
per cent adverbs, 7.4 per cent adjectives, 3.7 per cent prep- 
ositions, 11.8 per cent indefinite articles, with a few inter- 
jections and an occasional conjunction. She concludes 
(p. 137) "that the percentage of words of a class contained 
in the vocabulary is but an indifferent index of the fre- 
quency with which representatives of the class are brought 
into active service." In the early part of her child's second 
year, 33.8 per cent of the sentences had no verb; at the end 
of the year, only 7.2 per cent. Boyd (52) made estimates of 
the percentage of each part of speech used by his child in 
actual sentences at two, three, and four years, with much 
the same results as the accompanying table shows. Com- 
menting on the results, Boyd (52, p. 117) says, "a very 
striking feature is the sharp fall from the second to the third 
year in the percentage of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and ad- 
verbs, and the related rise in the percentage of pronouns* 
adjectives other than qualitative, auxiliaries, conjunctions, 
and prepositions." The difference is obviously connected 
with the profound changes which take place in the course 
of the third year in the organization of speech. 



Table IV 
Parts of Speech as actually used 



Observer 


Age 


Nouns 
{and pro.) 


Verbs 


Adv. 


Adj. 


Pro. 


Prep. 


Conj. 


Int. 


Moore 




43.4 


24.8 


9.5 


7.4 




3.7 


few 


few 


Boyd 


2 


36.8 


28.4 


13.2 


13.7 


6.2 


1.2 


.2 


.3 


Boyd 


3 


16.4 


31.9 


9.4 


17.4 


15.8 


5.6 


3.4 


.2 


Boyd 


4 


14.8 


31.9 


11.6 


14.6 


18.1 


5.7 


2.9 


.3 



170 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

The importance of such studies lies in the indications they 
give of the linguistic difficulties and needs at certain periods. 
The studies are too few as yet, and especially too little com- 
parison has been made of the actual working use of speech 
by children at different ages and that of adults, to warrant 
any very definite suggestions. It seems certain at least that 
such studies should be of great value in determining where 
to put the stress, at various stages, in the functional teach- 
ing of grammatical usage. 

Definitions and word meanings. Binet (1890) was per- 
haps the first to call attention to the preponderance of the 
factor of use in definitions given by children. He was fol- 
lowed by Shaw, Barnes, and others. The Barnes (3) study 
of two thousand children, fifty boys and fifty girls of each 
age from six to fifteen years, shows use standing first at 
45.38 per cent for all ages, with a steady decline from 79.49 
per cent at six to 30.62 per cent at fifteen years. Typical 
definitions in early years are such as, "An orange is to eat"; 
"a table is to eat off"; " a stove is to put fire in"; "a spoon 
is to eat in"; "a river means where you get drinks out of, 
water, and catch fish, and throw stones in." The last 
phrase illustrates well the dynamic nature of many defini- 
tions, as do most of the definitions by use, as well as such 
as the following one from "A Boy's Dictionary": "Saw 
is if you see something, after you see it you saw it." 

Chamberlain's child (5, vol. 16, pp. 64-103) showed in 
her definitions "the rapidity of the thoughts of children 
and the subordination of grammatical form to their imme- 
diate expression." For example: " Tight. This is too tight 
your dress. When I sit down, that dress you just took off 
why, it pulls my neck." Her primitive tendency to give 
"graphic descriptions or pictures" is illustrated in defining 
snowy: "When it 's snowy under the bamboo-tree and on the 
leaves is bunches of snow. Ah! here the leaves come out to 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 171 

play." Other definitions are brief phrases, as gingham — 
"cloth," or, "to wear," etc.; actions without words at all; 
definitions accompanied by actions; as, "Baby. It means 
babies that creep, — just like this" (she illustrates by 
creeping); words accompanied by pointing out, touching, 
saying this while pointing, acting out, etc. Many definitions 
contain such words as when, where, for, because, what, that, 
why, if, just, etc. In some onomatopoeia appears, in some 
linguistic invention, some are quite satisfactory, and in 
some analysis, analogy, comparison, etc., appear, but these 
last are the exception till mature years. 

The mastery of speech is by no means complete when a 
vocabulary of goodly proportions has been acquired. One of 
the most important phases in mastery of speech is the en- 
richment and perfecting of meaning or content of words. 
Kail, and later Barnes (2) and Chambers (6) made a very 
important contribution to language teachers by revealing 
clearly that children, and, to only a lesser degree, all persons, 
use many words with incorrect, incomplete, partial, or al- 
most total lack of content. Even such a common word as 
school was found to have correct content with only forty per 
cent of children at six, and with ninety-two per cent at 
twelve years. The more uncommon word — monk — was 
entirely devoid of content at six, and had attained correct 
content for only eighteen per cent at twelve years, if we 
may judge by their ability to define the terms as determined 
by Chambers (6). 

It seems very certain that in view of such facts it is much 
more important to perfect and enrich the content of a child's 
vocabulary than merely to add new words to the number 
already known. Since words are the symbols of ideas, the 
way to such enrichment lies in providing the child with 
ample opportunity to experience richly, to think freely, and 
to use his speech capacity to the full in expression of his 



172 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

own best thoughts and feelings to sympathetic auditors. It 
does not flatter our vanity to have to admit that our schools 
furnish too little opportunity along all these lines, and that 
we too often accept "words, words, words," and too rarely 
attempt to tease out the ideas, if such there be, whose pres- 
ence or absence words all too easily disguise, because words 
are often, after all, a crude tool or a good tool clumsily used. 

Several recent studies have shown that environment very 
directly affects the growth of vocabulary, and especially 
word content. Mrs. Nice (60) believes that the richness of 
the child's outdoor experience is reflected definitely in its 
speech. She cites as evidence her daughter's vocabulary at 
three periods, with notes on the environment, and com- 
parisons with other children's vocabularies showing how the 
child's experience and environment are reflected in his 
speech. Derver (11) emphasizes the fact that "expansion of 
a child's environment always tends to increase nouns rela- 
tively to other parts of speech." Both find, as others have, 
that number, time, space, and color vocabularies are unde- 
veloped at four years, and are more dependent upon mental 
development than environment. Richness of experience, 
however, does help progress in mastery of these abstract 
terms, as it also promotes intellectual maturity, of which ab- 
stract concepts are an evidence. 

Use of the sentence. Mastery of the various sentence 
forms is a matter of much difficulty. It involves, as Major 
(302) shows, the learning among other things of: (1) the 
function of the parts of speech, especially connective and 
subordinating words — pronouns, conjunctions, preposi- 
tions; (2) the proper number of words; (3) conventional 
word order; (4) intricacies of inflection; (5) use of the nega- 
tive; (6) formulse for questions; and (7) refinements of 
word content. The most serious limitations at first are 
the restricted vocabulary and the desire for directness in 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 173 

speech, which makes the child strike vigorously at the point 
or idea that he wishes to express, regardless of conventional 
requirements. To a child of two or three years of age, as 
Lukens observes (22, p. 459), "the order of words is nothing. 
He wants to say it all at once." Word order varies so in 
different languages that it would seem that this is more a 
matter of tradition, habit, and custom than of logic. The 
child therefore acquires the traditional usages slowly and 
with difficulty. The child's sentences are short and usually 
simple. Mrs. Moore (29, p. 136) found that the average 
number of words in several hundred sentences used by her 
boy was 3.02 in the early part of the second year, and 4.05 
in the latter part of the same year. Brandenburg (53, p. 
94) found the average number of words, in 1487 sentences, 
of his three-year-old child to be 6.6. Miss Snyder (40, p. 
412) found a large proportion of the sentences of a two-and- 
a-half -year-old child to be imperatives, or simple variations 
of the imperative. Many sentences that were declarative 
in form were really imperative in function. There was com- 
paratively little interest in or use of complex or compound 
sentences. 

Linguistic activity of one day. Some interesting light is 
thrown upon the value and significance of speech in the 
daily life of children by several studies which have, by actual 
count, determined the extent of its use in a single day. 
Eight such estimates are summarized in the accompanying 
table, an examination of which must make it evident that 
the speech function is a very vital one in infancy. Children 
of the pre-school period talk most of the time they are awake. 
Brandenburg's child used 950 words per hour, and during the 
day uttered 1487 sentences, exclusive of repetitions, each 
sentence containing on the average from five to seven words. 
At these years it seems that children have few unused words 
in their vocabularies, for a large percentage of the entire 



174 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



Table V 
Linguistic Activity fob a Single Day 



Observer 



Gale 

Gale 

Gale 

Gale 

Gale 

Brandenburg 

Bell 

Bell 



Age 



2 

3 
3§ 



Child's 
vocabulary 



729 

741 

(Est. 1400) 

1432 

1509 



Different 
words used 


Total 
words used 


635 


5194 


396 


4275 


805 


10507 


751 


9290 


629 


8992 


859 


11623 




15230 




14996 



Per cent 
Voc. used 



87 
53.4 

52.5 
41.6 
37.6 



vocabulary is used every day, the percentage decreasing as 
the vocabulary increases. The impulse to utter aloud every 
thought that comes into the mind unquestionably plays no 
small part in the progress which the child makes in the 
mastery of speech. To inhibit this tendency overmuch at 
this period, or to fail to allow ample opportunity for oral 
speech during the early school years, certainly tends to 
repress and perhaps to retard the very developments we 
wish to further in our teaching of the mother tongue. 

Speech and intelligence. Retardation of speech develop- 
ment has long been considered an evidence of mental retar- 
dation. Recently numerous careful studies of this relation- 
ship have confirmed this belief and made it more definite. 
Mead (25) found, in comparing twenty-five normal boys 
and twenty-five normal girls averaging less than six years 
of age with fifty-six boys and thirty-six girls of the school- 
able class of feeble-minded children, that there are signifi- 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 



175 



cant differences in the age at which talking is begun, as the 
accompanying table from his study shows. 



Table VI 

Age of Beginning to Talk 
(After Mead) 



Mental status 


Median age 

of talking 

(in months) 


Range of ages (in months) 


Average 

superiority of the 

normal group 


Normal 


15.8 


9-25 (90% 10-21) 
12-156 (90% 14-84) 


18.6 




34.44 






16.5 


Greater for boys 


19.28 




15.5 


than girls with 


14.50 


Feeble-minded boys . . 


35.76 


both classes 




Feeble-minded girls . . 


30. 







It will be seen that the median age of beginning to speak 
is 18.6 months earlier with normal children, that the range 
of ages at beginning is 128 months greater with the feeble- 
minded, and that in both these respects the defective boys 
are inferior to the defective girls. With lower grade feeble- 
minded children the discrepancy is much greater, and in 
many such cases the children are entirely dumb. Mead (25) 
found of one hundred consecutive cases admitted to the 
Indiana School for Feeble-minded Youth fourteen per cent 
dumb, and thirty-seven per cent more to have defective 
speech. 

Even more significant as a mark of intelligence is the rate 
of progress and the kind of progress made in mastery of 
speech. Dr. Clara H. Town (45), from a careful study of 
the language development of 285 idiot and imbecile children 



176 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



in the Lincoln State School and Colony, finds "a distinct 
age correlation for the successive levels of language develop- 
ment, and just as distinct a correlation for the various speech 
defects, with the single exception of stuttering." Of seven- 
teen low-grade idiots, two understood gestures, four could 
make them voluntarily, but none could imitate them. One 
understood a few words, but none could speak a word. Of 
twenty-five high-grade idiots, on the other hand, nearly all 
understood, imitated, and made voluntary gestures, four- 
teen understood and ten could speak a few words. By the 
use of 3£0 test words, suggested to the children by pictures 
and objects, Dr. Town got a somewhat incomplete estimate 
of the vocabularies of twenty-five low-, ten middle-, and 
ten high-grade imbeciles. The tests showed a steady in- 
crease in vocabulary from the lower to the higher levels, and 
further indicate a distinct inferiority in size of vocabulary 
when these children are compared with normal children of 
the same mental age. The accompanying table presents a 
brief summary of Dr. Town's results, showing the number 
of words actually used by these children and the number 
of the test words known by them. 



Table VII 

Vocabulary Test — Imbeciles 
(After Town) 



Class 


No. 


Ages 


Mental 
ages 


Test words 
used 


Total no. 
words used 


Low-grade 


13 
12 
10 
10 


6-28 
7-17 
7-13 
9-14 


3 
4 
5 
6 


30-139 

90-195 

155-265 

250-299 


112 


Low-grade 


188 


High-grade 


315.5 
263 







LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 177 

Word tests. Whipple (63, p. 14) has pointed out that the 
greater the number of words used explicatively, rather than 
merely indicatively, the higher the intelligence is likely to 
be. Derver (11) has recently urged the point that definite 
marks of definite stages of mental growth are to be found 
in the relative preponderance of certain parts of speech, of 
certain classes within some of the parts of speech, and in the 
facility with which words of these classes are acquired. 
Most of the vocabulary studies show a relative preponder- 
ance of verbs in infancy, to use a striking example. Inter- 
jectional elements are also out of all proportion in the early 
stages of speech learning. The rapid acquisition of nouns 
depends largely upon the enrichment and expansion of the 
child's environment, but rapid increase in the number of 
adjectives and adverbs evidences an increasing ability to 
note the qualities of objects and to refine one's thinking 
about them, and is therefore a better symptom of mental 
growth. Certain groups of words, such as color terms and 
the demonstrative adjectives, are often acquired quite sud- 
denly, and so seem to mark steps in mental development 
following periods of acquisition and assimilation of knowl- 
edge. The use of relative pronouns and subordinating con- 
junctions implies ability to handle complex sentences, and 
therefore marks a higher mental capacity than does the cor- 
rect use of the personal pronouns. So, too, adverbs of place 
are usually first used. Those of time, degree, and manner 
may mark successive levels of intelligence. If further in- 
vestigations prove such correlations to be fairly constant 
and uniform, the use of mental tests, involving command of 
definite phases of speech, is likely to be fruitfully extended. 
Already certain of the linguistic tests have proved to be 
very useful. 

The method used in definition of words and the success 
of such definition has also been used as an index to mental 



178 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

development. This was early suggested by such studies as 
those of Biiiet, Barnes, and Shaw (38), in the last of which 
a comparison of the results of the three studies is to be 
found. Definitions by action or use, as "an orange is to 
eat," strongly predominate in early years over definitions 
by subsumption under the larger term, as "an orange is a 
fruit"; and definitions in which descriptions of the qualities, 
substance, or structure of the object are attempted, as, "an 
orange is yellow, round like a baseball, it has a thick rind 
and is sweet," etc. 

Considerations in judging intelligence. In judging intelli- 
gence by the use of speech there are, then, several important 
considerations, as pointed out by Dr. Louise Ellison (13) 
and others, and as used in the various series of intelligence 
tests. The more important are: (1) the age of learning to 
speak; (2) the size of vocabulary relative to others of the 
same age; (3) the kind of use made of words; (4) the method 
of definition and the success of definition; (5) general com- 
mand of speech, as shown in: (a) ability to supply missing 
words in a connected story (completion test) ; (b) ability to 
rearrange a mixed group of words into a simple sentence 
("to asked exercise my teacher correct my I"); (c) compre- 
hension of a passage read; (d) ability to give the opposites 
(large — small) of words; and many others. 

It should always be kept in mind that there are other 
important modes of linguistic expression in the broader 
sense, and that there are notable individual differences in 
the speech capacity proper without corresponding differ-, 
ences in intelligence. Ogden (30, p. 53), after a long-corn 
tinued series of experiments, contends "that knowing is no( 
identical with expressing, if by expressing we mean a rela 
tively adequate interpretation of that which is known." H* 
finds that knowing, thinking, and expressing are different 
processes. " Indeed, there are many who possess a facility d 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 179 

expression quite beyond the demands of their feeble knowl- 
edge, while others, though deep and effective thinkers, are 
condemned to struggle constantly with their deficiencies in 
expressive art." So, while the latter class are at a distinct 
disadvantage, since speech is the organ of thought par 
excellence, the sine qua non for the transmission of many 
phases of culture from age to age, such persons are not neces- 
sarily inferior in intelligence. The casual observer is likely 
also to be misled, as Binet (45, pp. 229-30) has shown, by 
reason of the fact that many children of very low intelligence, 
provided they have reached the seven-year level, have quite 
free and fluent use of speech. It is only as the quality of 
their speech is carefully observed that their deficiencies are 
seen. 

Summary 

1. Speech is an innate capacity acquired chiefly by exer- 
cise of voice play, self-expression, and imitation. 

2. Acquirement is quite as much a matter of enriched 
sensory-motor experience and mental growth as of 
learning words. 

3. In early stages children naturally violate all the con- 
ventional usages of speech, and aim directly and force- 
fully at expression of ideas. 

4. Material and linguistic environment are the chief 
stimuli for the acquisition of vocabulary and the 
mastery of the forms of speech. Both create an insist- 
ent demand for additions to vocabulary which should 
be patiently and carefully met. Either has more value 
than formal instruction. 

5. Plenty of opportunity for well-directed practice of 
speech is a sine qua non of good linguistic training. 

6. Wealth of linguistic expression is a most marked trait of 
early childhood and a vital need in mastery of speech. 



280 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

7. Association with older persons develops speech more 
rapidly than that with other children. 

8. "Baby talk'* is detrimental to both linguistic and 
mental development. 

9. Verb inflections, use of connectives and subordinating 
words, and the mastery of the complex sentence are 
the most difficult elements of speech. Abstract con- 
cepts of number, space, color, time, and the like are 
acquired relatively late, and are an outgrowth of 
experience. 

10. The use of slang is natural. It is an evidence of poverty 
of vocabulary and is to be combated chiefly in a posi- 
tive way by enrichment and perfecting of vocabulary 
through reading, actual experience, and practice of 
precision under direction. 

11. The successful direction of linguistic development de- 
mands an intimate knowledge of the laws and ten- 
dencies of spontaneous speech. 

12. Linguistic tests are among the best available means of 
determining intelligence. In this the kind rather than 
the size of vocabulary is most important; the kind of 
use made of vocabulary rather than its content. Tests 
along this line can and should be widely extended and 
used. 

13. The development of speech is one of the richest fields 
for future study. 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Differentiate speech from language. 

2. What instinctive tendencies are the basis for speech? 

3. Show the superiority of the human physiological and psychological 
equipment for speech over that of animals. 

4. What are the hereditary and what the acquired elements in speech? 

5. Of how much importance has the possession of speech been in the 
mental and social evolution of man? Explain. 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 181 

6. With your answer to the last question in mind, discuss the place and 
importance of speech in the development of individual intelligence. 

7. Study some of the linguistic tests used in the Binet-Simon or Stanford 
intelligence scales, and explain why they are good indications of 
intelligence. 

8. Discuss the important facts about children's vocabularies and their 
development. 

9. Explain with some detail the way in which words acquire meaning. 

10. Just what things would you do to help a child acquire a large and 
rich vocabulary? 

11. Explain the attractiveness of slang. 

12. Why does the study of grammar often have but little effect upon 
speech? 

13. What definite suggestions for linguistic teaching at home and in 
school do you draw from the facts of natural development of this 
capacity? 

14. Why may speech be spoken of as the most distinctively human 
capacity? 

15. Secure and study the definitions of a few common words by children 
of different ages as, for example the word animal. 

16. Try out the completion or opposites tests and study the results. 

17. Make careful analysis of the speech of several children whom you 
judge to represent different levels of intelligence. 

18. Question a number of children and adults as to why they use slang. 



SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. Ballard, P. B. "Sinstrality and Speech"; in Jour, of Exp. Ped., vol. 1, 

pp. 298-310. 

2. Barnes, E. "How Words Get Content"; in his Studies in Education 

(1902), vol. 2, pp. 43-61. 
S. Barnes, E. "A Study of Children's Interests"; in his Studies in Edu- 
cation (1896-97), vol. 1, pp. 203-12. 

4. Chamberlain, A. F. The Child: A Study in the Evolution of Man (1900), 

pp. 107-71. 

5. Chamberlain, A. F., and Chamberlain, Isabel C. "Studies of a Child"; 

in Ped. Sem., vol. 12, pp. 425-53; and vol. 16, pp. 64-103. 
*6. Chambers, W. G. "How Words Get Meaning"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 11, 
pp. 30-50. 

7. Chrisman, O. "The Secret Language of Children"; in Child Study Mo., 

vol. 2, pp. 202-11; also Century, vol. 56, pp. 54-58. 

8. Conn, H. W. Social Heredity and Social Evolution (1914), pp. 43-71. 

9. Conradi, E. "Children's Interest in Words, Slang, Stories, etc."; in 

Ped. Sem., vol. 10, pp. 359-404. 



182 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

10. Conradi, E. "Psychology and Pathology of Speech Development in 

the Child"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 11, pp. 328-80. 

11. Derver, J. "A Study of Children's Vocabularies"; in Jour, of Exp. 

Ped., vol. 3, pp. 34-43; 96-103; 182-188. 

12. Drummond, W. B. An Introduction to Child Study (1908), pp. 256-76. 

13. Ellison, Miss L. "Children's Capacity for Abstract Thought as 

Shown by their Use of Language in the Definition of Abstract 
Terms"; in Am. Jour. Psy., vol. 19, pp. 253-60. 

14. Gesell, A. L., and Gesell, Mrs. B. C. The Normal Child and Primary 

Education (1912), pp. 159-80. 

15. Giles, P. "Evolution and the Science of Language"; in Darwin and 

Modern Science (1909), pp. 512-28. 

16. Groos, K. The Play of Man (1901), pp. 31-48; 294-300. 

17. Hall, G. S. Adolescence (1905), vol. 2, pp. 454-80; also Youth (1907), 

pp. 238-65. 

18. Hirshberg, L. K. "'Dog-Latin' and Sparrow-Languages used by 

Baltimore Children"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 20, pp. 257-58. 

19. Jamgotchian, M. K. "Sparrow Language, the Secret Language 

among the Armenian Children"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 20, pp. 98-99. 

20. Judd, C. H. Psychology (1907), pp. 248-73. 

21. Kirkpatrick, E. A. Fundamentals of Child Study (1907), pp. 222-43. 
*22. Lukens, H. T. "Preliminary Report of the Learning of Language"; 

in Ped. Sem., vol. 3, pp. 424-60. 

23. Major, D. R. First Steps in Mental Growth (1906), pp. 278-333. 

24. Magni, J. A. " Department of Child Linguistics"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 

17, pp. 213-18. 
24a. McDougall, R. " The Child's Speech " ; in Jour, of Educ. Psy., vol. 3, 
pp. 423-29; 507-13; 571-76; vol. 4, pp. 29-38; 85-96. 

25. Mead, C. D. "The Age of Walking and Talking in Relation to 

General Intelligence"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 20, pp. 460-84. 

26. Melville, A. H. "An Investigation of the Function and Use of 

Slang"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 19, pp. 94-100. 

27. Monroe, P. (edit). Cyclopedia of Education. (Under "Language," 

"Speech," "Vocabulary," etc.) 

28. Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method (1902), pp. 310-25. 

29. Moore, Mrs. K. "The Mental Development of a Child"; in Psych. 

Rev. Mon. Sup., no. 3. (1886.) 

30. Ogden, R. M. "Knowing and Expressing"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 18, 

pp. 47-53. 
*31. O'Shea, M. V. Linguistic Development and Education. (1907.) 347 pp. 
(Bibliography.) 

32. Partridge, G. E. The Genetic Philosophy of Education (1912), pp. 229- 

45. 

33. Perez, B. The First Three Years of Childhood (1889), pp. 234-62. 

34. Preyer, W. The Development of the Intellect. (1889.) 317 pp. 



LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT 183 

35. Preyer, W. Infant Mind (1893), pp. 84-122. 

36. Scripture, E. W. Stuttering and Lisping. (1912.) 251 pp. 

Best English reference on the subject. 

37. Sechrist, F. K. "The Psychology of Unconventional Language"; in 

Ped. Sent., vol. 20, pp. 413-59. 

38. Shaw, E. R. "A Study of Interests"; in Child Study Mo., vol. 2, pp. 

152-67. 

39. Shinn, Miss M. W. Biography of a Baby (1900), pp. 224-37. 

40. Snyder, Miss A. D. "Notes of the Talk of a Two-and-a-Half- Year- 

Old Boy"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 21, pp. 412-24. 

41. Sully, J. Studies of Childhood (1895), pp. 133-90. 

42. Swift, W. B. Speech Defects in School Children. (1918.) 125 pp. 

43. Tanner, Miss A. The Child (1915), pp. 392-423. 

*44. Terman, L. M. The Hygiene of the School Child (1914), pp. 335-61. 
Good discussion of speech defects. 

45. Town, Miss C. H. "Language Development in 285 Idiots and Imbe- 
ciles"; in Psych. Clinic, vol. 6, pp. 229-35. 

*46. Tracy, F., and Stimpfl, J. The Psychology of Childhood (1909), pp. 
119-65. 

*47. Trettien, A. W. "The Psychology of Language Interest in Children"; 
in Ped. Sem., vol. 11, pp. 113-78. 

48. Williams, Miss L. A. "Children's Interest in Words"; in Ped. Sem., 

vol. 9, pp. 274-95. 

49. Wolff, Miss F.E. "A Boy's Dictionary"; in Child Study Mo., vol. 3, 

pp. 141-50. 

Typical Vocabulary Studies 

50. Bateman, W. G. " Language Status of Three Children at the Same 

Ages"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 23, pp. 211-40. 

51. Bohn, W. E. "First Steps in Verbal Expression"; in Ped. Sem., 

vol. 21, pp. 578-95. 

52. Boyd, W. "The Development of a Child's Vocabulary"; in Ped. Sem. 9 

vol. 21, pp. 95-124. 

53. Brandenburg, G. C. "The Language of a Three- Year-Old Child"; 

in Ped. Sem., vol. 22, pp. 89-120. 

54. Brandenburg, G. C, and Brandenburg, Julia. "Language Develop- 

ment during the Fourth Year"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 23, pp. 14-29. 

55. Bush, A. D. "The Vocabulary of a Three-Year-Old Girl"; in Ped. 

Sem., vol. 21, pp. 125-42. 
*56. Doran, E. W. "A Study of Vocabularies"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 14, pp. 
401-38. (Bibliography of 118 titles.) 
57. Grant, J. R. "A Child's Vocabulary and its Growth"; in Ped. Sem., 
vol. 22, pp. 183-203. 



184 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

58. Heilig, M. R. "A Child's Vocabulary"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 20, pp. 1-16. 

59. Langenbeck, M. "A Study of a Five-Year-Old Child"; in Ped. Sem. p 

vol. 22, pp. 65-88. 

60. Nice, Mrs. M. M. "The Development of a Child's Vocabulary in 

Relation to Environment"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 22, pp. 35-64. 
*61. Pelsma, J. R. "A Child's Vocabulary and Its Development"; in 
Ped. Sem., vol. 17, pp. 329-69. (Bibliography of 55 titles.) 

62. Rowe, E. C, and Rowe, Mrs. N. H. "The Vocabulary of a Child at 

Four and Six Years of Age"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 20, pp. 187-208. 

63. Whipple, G. M., and Whipple, Mrs. G. M. " The Vocabulary of a 

Three-Year-Old Boy"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 16, pp. 1-22. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 

Drawing is an activity almost as universal in child- 
hood as speech or play, though it is less persistent and less 
well perfected because less indispensable. Only play, of 
which in some respects spontaneous drawing is a form, re- 
veals more of the inner nature of childhood. In drawing as 
in play the real child "comes out to meet the world." In 
no activity is it more clearly illustrated that impression 
tends to result in expression and that "all consciousness is 
motor." By drawing and other allied forms of artistic 
creativeness impressions are often more easily, more simply, 
and better expressed than by speech. Spontaneity, origi- 
nality, and creativeness find here one of their truest, most 
impressive, and best manifestations with a clearness that 
few adults have learned to recognize. 

Instinctive basis of artistic expression. As with play and 
with speech, the universality of drawing, the type forms 
it takes, and the spontaneous pleasure it brings argue for it 
also a strong instinctive basis. This seems all the more true 
since in expression in drawing children receive less syste- 
matic and persistent training than in either play or speech. 
The instincts of general physical and mental activity lead 
almost universally to drawing as one of their modes of 
expression often before the child is a year old, and almost 
always by the time he reaches one and a half. The tendency 
to manipulate objects usually brings the first drawings, often 
quite by accident, as one of its natural results. The innate 
tendencies to constructiveness and self-expression supple- 
ment aimless manipulation so as soon to bring about pur- 



186 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

poseful creative efforts. The growth of memory and of pro- 
ductive imagination and the increase of capacity for obser- 
vation, supplemented by the strong innate capacity for 
imitation, lend variety and little by little give form to the 
first crude creations. The enrichment of experience gives 
birth in time to aesthetic sensibility and to the increasing 
capacity for appreciation and enjoyment in ways which we 
as yet little understand. A combination of all these instincts, 
innate tendencies, and capacities results in spontaneous 
interest, amounting often to something like a passion for 
drawing, painting, and clay-modeling, as well as to the 
growth of the cognate interests in form, color, and beauty as 
expressed in pictures, plastic art, and in grace of movement 
in man and animals. So strong is this passion at certain 
stages and with many individuals that it asks only oppor- 
tunity and media for its expression, and if these be lacking 
it often makes its own opportunity even in spite of opposi- 
tion and attempts at repression. Of this the clandestine 
drawings, with which we used to fill our slates and decorate 
the margins of our books in the "good old days" when 
creative efforts of this sort were frowned upon by those 
teachers who exalted the intellectual at the expense of motor 
accomplishments, bear ample witness. 

Racial origins. Of phyletic origins, of parallels between 
child and primitive art, and of recapitulation of racial 
stages, much has been written by such careful students as 
Chamberlain (9), Hall (15, pp. 528 ff.), Levinstein (15, 
pp. 506-10), and others. The obscurity in which these 
problems of the dim prehistoric past lie buried, the sup- 
pression and redirection of natural impulses by adults and 
by the effects of a complex environment, and the greater 
value of direct study of the actual work of children, all alike 
forbid our dwelling long upon details of this fascinating 
phase of the subject. 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 187 

Whether artistic expression arose by chance as "the 
occupation of an idle moment" when, recognizing an acci- 
dental resemblance between some natural object and a well- 
known form, such as the human face or that of some animal, 
prehistoric man attempted to heighten that resemblance by 
his own creative efforts, is difficult to say. Whether the first 
rude art of man was the result of enforced efforts to supple- 
ment his crude capacity for communication by means of 
speech is equally difficult to determine now; or whether some 
still different circumstance in man's early history gave birth 
to this most distinctively human capacity we may never 
know. This much seems certain. The art impulse is uni- 
versal, useful, pleasurable, self-revealing. No other animal 
possesses such a capacity. Certain it is also that the exer- 
cise of this capacity from time immemorial is not without 
its effect upon man himself. Increase of mental and man- 
ual capacity, acquaintance with the world of things, and 
capacity for observation and mastery of environment owe 
not a little to this creative impulse. 

Parallels between the racial and individual development 
of aesthetic and creative capacity are too evident to escape 
attention. To admit this need not bind us to accept or to 
push too far their recapitulatory significance, nor, on the 
other hand, need we be blind to the fact that a study of 
primitive art holds something of value for the student 
of child art. A somewhat extended study of the art of 
primitive man has brought to the writer the following out- 
standing facts: Much of primitive art went into the deco- 
ration of the person. Painting or tattooing the body, or 
parts of it, decorating the person with ornaments, ear, nose, 
and lip rings, anklets, bracelets, necklaces, individual and 
traditional modes of dressing the hair, and of wearing the 
clothing which were often and still are for aesthetic as well 
as for mere utilitarian purposes, all alike evidence a feeling 



188 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

for art. Another large part of primitive art expended itself 
upon the decoration of man's possessions. Examples may 
be found in carving and drawing upon shields, spears, bows, 
arrows, arrowheads, and other implements of war and the 
chase. Woman's art in basketry, blankets, pottery, and 
other implements about the home is found among primitive 
tribes in all parts of the world. 

Many phases of primitive art show that drawing, carving, 
modeling, weaving, and the like are not mere idle pastime 
but have definite utilitarian as well as aesthetic values. 
Tribal symbols, totem poles, images, idols, inscriptions on 
altars, temples, walls of cave dwellings, cliffs, and the like 
have long been known to have religious and ceremonial uses. 
By these means the deities were pleased, implored, placated. 
Unfriendly "demons" of disease and other misfortunes were 
"frightened" or destroyed by the grotesque figures of the 
"medicine-man." The personal decorations above referred 
to quite as often served the purpose of charms, amulets, and 
fetiches as of mere decoration. The designs on pottery, 
blankets, and baskets were usually meaningful and purpose- 
ful, like the tattooing of the body, as is shown by the refrain 
of a primitive song, "Who can kill me now? I am tattooed, 
I am tattooed." 

Drawing preceded written speech and gave rise to it. The 
message sticks of the Australian native, the drawings on 
bark, wood, soft stone, skins, bamboo, papyrus, etc., are 
the "books" and letters of primitive man. Picture writing 
gave to the world hieroglyphics, and later the alphabet. 
Much primitive drawing is, therefore, communicative and 
linguistic, as we have pointed out in our chapter on language. 

In short, primitive art was and is a means of pleasurable 
activity, a means of sex attraction, of winning approval, 
of increasing prestige, a means of religious expression, of 
magic, of cure for disease, of heightening physical capacity 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 189 

and increasing bravery, a means of perfecting knowledge 
of the world of things, a medium of communication, and, 
among other things, perhaps last a pure form of sesthetic 
self-expression and enjoyment. All this is a study by itself, 
and yet as we proceed to our attempt to trace the develop- 
ment of child art we shall perhaps better understand the 
wealth of individual initiative, originality, and spontaneity 
which confronts us when we know something of what the 
child has fallen heir to. Surely an activity which has played 
such a role in the life of our primitive forbears ought to fulfill 
its promise of tremendous value as a culture media for chil- 
dren. Through its exercise many phases of racial soul life 
should awaken again in each new generation. 

Studies of children's drawings. Beginning with the study 
of Ricci (26) in Italy, in 1887, several score of studies have 
been made and published, a selection of the best of which we 
append in our bibliography. Some of the most suggestive 
consist of a large collection of drawings of individual chil- 
dren extending over a term of years and revealing the pro- 
gressive changes in interest and capacity with age. Those 
of Miss Shinn, Mrs. Hogan, Jordan, Major, Brown, and 
others are typical. Others are mass studies, including analy- 
sis and interpretation of thousands of drawings by children 
of all ages. Barnes and his associates made several distinct 
studies, each with a particular problem or group of problems, 
and involving many thousands of returns. Lukens (21) 
collected 3400 drawings from children of two to sixteen 
years, including a number of sets from individuals. Schuy- 
ten collected 4000 drawings of the human form alone by 
boys and girls from three to thirteen in the schools of Ant- 
werp. Large collections have been made in several German 
cities. With characteristic German thoroughness Kerschen- 
steiner (20) has made the most extended, careful, and com- 
prehensive study yet attempted. He spent seven years, 



190 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

following the work of 58,000 children, and studying with 
especial care the work of 15,000 non-selected children and 
that of 2300 of exceptional ability. His investigation in- 
volved the examination of 300,000 drawings, and his report 
appeared as a book of 508 pages, containing reproductions 
of more than 1000 drawings, some of them in color. This 
book is a veritable mine of information on the subject. 
Hall (15) has resumeed all of these and many more studies, 
and has himself examined many thousands of drawings sent 
him from various parts of this country, as well as those pub- 
lished in the literature, and bases his suggestive chapter on 
the pedagogy of drawing upon such study. Of these draw- 
ings, and especially of selected ones of which he made special 
study, he says, "nothing in the whole wide domain of child- 
study, and indeed nothing in all the great art galleries of 
the world that I have seen, has so impressed me with the 
native spontaneity and creative originality of human nature 
as these " (p. 515). From these studies many interesting and 
fascinating things are to be learned about child nature, 
some of which it is our purpose to set forth in the pages 
that follow. 

Genetic stages in drawing capacity. As in the develop- 
ment of speech, so in that of interest in and capacity for 
drawing, definite stages can be made out more or less 
clearly. Among the more suggestive and useful statements 
are those of Sully (30, p. 382), Tracy (32, pp. 172-78), 
Major (23, pp. 47-56), and Lukens (22), to mention only 
American writers. We shall follow in the main the stages 
outlined by Lukens. 

(1) The scribble stage. The first form of drawing is well 
characterized as scribbling, and elements of it persist usually 
till four or five years of age. It may begin early in the second 
year, but often does not become a marked interest till the 
beginning of the third year. Scribble drawing passes through 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 191 

several phases which Major (23) has analyzed in great 
detail. First there is a period, noted by almost all observers, 
of crude, impulsive, quite aimless pencilings, enjoyed quite 
as much it seems for the movements involved as for any 
objective result produced by them. Significant for its bear- 
ing upon the movement made in writing is the fact that the 
first spontaneous movements are from right to left. Aimless 
scribbling merges into what Major (23, p. 48) calls "pur- 
posive pencilings," in which the results produced by the 
pencil become an object of interest and attention. This often 
leads to the chance recognition of likenesses between the 
scrawl of fines and some object known to the child; as, cat, 
man, mouse. This is apt to be followed by a period in which 
the child draws many figures, and after they are drawn 
assigns names to them as fancy dictates. The same sort of 
scrawl thus often serves many purposes. Next attempts are 
apt to be made, either with or without copies to imitate, at 
representation of objects as the child knows them. These 
are, however, usually descriptive rather than truly pictorial 
in form. Neither Baldwin (1, p. 80) nor Miss Shinn (6, p. 5), 
who have watched closely for this stage, find any apparent 
connection between the mental image and the movements 
used in attempting to represent that image before the 
twenty-seventh month. The difficulties encountered in 
attempts at representation often lead to requests that his 
elders "draw man — draw horse," and the like. The fact 
that help is so commonly given furnishes the basis for imi- 
tative drawing, and also no doubt gives something of con- 
ventionality to the symbols commonly adopted by most 
children for the objects they most frequently draw, such as 
man, horse, dog, and house. Baldwin (1), Lukens (21), and 
others have called attention to the fact that the first imitation 
occurring in this stage is usually of the movements of the 
teacher's hands rather than of the copy or model. The 



192 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

rather unusual drawings of man by Miss Shinn's niece (6, 
p. 26), who was not given models to copy, seem to indicate 
that the symbols so commonly adopted by children may be 
more imitative than spontaneous. 

Apparent or real retrogression in ability to symbolize 
or depict is often seen with the dawn of attention to de- 
tail. This, plus the resultant dissatisfaction with his own 
efforts, may account for the very marked lapses of interest, 
sometimes of weeks' or even months' duration, which chil- 
dren often show. At such times the child prefers to have 
others draw for him rather than to draw for himself. These 
periods of attention to detail tend to obscure the descriptive 
nature of drawings. The child will draw part by part, nam- 
ing each as he draws it, but with so little attention to rela* 
tion of parts that when the drawing is complete it becomes 
an unrecognizable scrawl which one would not think of as 
descriptive had one not seen it drawn. Miss Shinn has well 
illustrated this point (6, p. 12). Her illustration also shows 
how necessary it sometimes is to study the child at his work 
as well as to study the finished product of his effort if we 
hope to get a correct understanding of an activity. This 
temporary apparent retrogression, although discouraging 
to the child, is really a step in progress to the following 
stage. The first definite attempts at representation with 
attention to details, as for example the parts of the human 
figure, tend definitely to take the form of what Lukens calls 
"scribbling localizations," which is a sort of transition be- 
tween scribbling and symbolization. 

(2) Artistic illusion. When a child has gained some abil- 
ity to depict what is in his mind with some relation to its 
appearance as he knows it, even if this be quite symbolic 
rather than pictorial, he has reached a stage in mental and 
manual development which gives a new motive to drawing. 
Barnes (4, p. 302) was one of the first to insist that for chil- 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 193 

dren drawing is a language as much of it was for primitive 
man. This becomes peculiarly true at about six to eight 
years. The drawings of the scribbling stage are in a vague 
way self -expressive, but those of this period are expressive 
in a very much more definite way of thoughts, ideas, scenes, 
stories. Representations of objects are still very crude but 
relationships are worked out, activities pictured, scenes 
portrayed, and stories told with the pencil. Small attention 
is paid to beauty, symmetry, proportion, or balance, and 
almost none to perspective. Decorative details receive 
attention, often one at a time, until fair success is attained 
with them. Buttons, hats, hair, watch chains, and the like 
are examples of the decorative elements attempted in 
drawings of the human figure. 

This is an imaginative and non-critical stage, a period of 
pre-artistic play. The finer points of technique are now non- 
existent and of little value to the child artist. The grossest 
violations of all the categories of art do not disturb him in 
the least, and, if we understood, ought to disturb the teacher 
far less than they do. His efforts often take the form of dis-. 
connected symbolism, which Barnes has called "cata- 
loguing." All agree that now the child draws what he knows 
about objects, not what he sees. A few telling lines commit 
his ideas to paper and he is pleased and satisfied with the 
result. Often he cares little or nothing for his effort after 
it has served its immediate purpose. The period is often a 
prolific one, full of creative effort of a most valuable sort if 
initiative, spontaneity, self-expression, and creative effort 
are of any value. Lukens gives details of the prolific expres- 
sion of one boy whose work was followed for a year, and 
thinks the value of it in an educational way may compare 
favorably with all that is learned in school during a similar 
period (21). "Here," says Chamberlain (9, p. 209), "the 
child is likest the real artistic genius, whose product is more 



194 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

of a substitute for than a strict imitation of nature." As we 
have already said, here genius often begins to show itself if 
allowed freedom to follow its own devices. Lukens feels 
that it is little less than criminal for the teacher to say to 
the child, while this period is on : "Open your eyes and see the 
tree and the fruit thereof, as they really are. Draw the apple 
exactly as you see it. The pupil does so, and his eyes are 
opened, and he sees his nakedness, and is filled with shame. 
The divine gift of artistic illusion vanishes; he awakens to 
find that he cannot draw" (£2, p. 946). Thus the "golden 
age" is too often destroyed. 

(3) The self-conscious period. But if not the teacher, 
other factors are at work to bring self-consciousness and 
with it discouragement and loss of interest. Increase of 
intellectuality, increase of eesthetic appreciation, improve- 
ment of the power of observation, and the repressions of 
environment as well outside as inside the school, bring the 
child sooner or later "to see that his drawing is nothing 
more than a poor, weak imitation of nature, and the charm 
of creative art vanishes with the disappearance of the former 
naive faith" (9, p. 209). Thus is ushered in what has well 
been called the plateau stage, where the child's best efforts 
bring results far below his ideals and where progress is slow 
and painful, if indeed there is progress at all. Most children 
reach this period at from twelve to fourteen years. Many 
never get beyond it. Effort and initiative diminish or cease 
with many, and it requires the greatest skill on the part of 
the teacher here, as in similar periods for other accomplish- 
ments, to tide the child over this period by means of external 
incentives and what may perhaps seem unmerited encour- 
agement. Mechanical drawing and decorative art, where 
defects are less serious and glaring, may keep interest from 
failing altogether, and, if progress has been good in the 
preceding period, without destruction of originality <?** tb* 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 195 

arousal of too much self-criticism, the transition may be 
the more easily made. 

(4) The period of rebirth of artistic ability. Often at fifteen 
or sixteen years, if not earlier, there comes for the favored 
few a rebirth of artistic interest and a rapid increase of ar- 
tistic ability. This is correlative with the many similar 
changes which accompany adolescence. The final increment 
of growth brings something of adult size and proportion of 
parts. Approaching physical maturity makes possible motor 
coordinations and control entirely impossible in early years* 
All intellectual capacities are now ripening into mature form 
so that observation is more accurate, attention and will more 
subject to control, judgment more trustworthy and exact, 
and capacity for aesthetic appreciation greatly increased. 
The higher emotions have begun their dominating influence, 
and desire for worthy accomplishment and social approval 
were never so strong. Drawing is no longer merely an inter- 
esting activity, nor merely a means of expression useful for 
the moment. Drawing now for most becomes for the first 
time truly artistic. Interest in the art value of the product 
arouses interest in the technique of accomplishment, which 
till now has been of little concern. Now the school may pre- 
scribe technique, the grammar of drawing, for suggestions 
for improvement were never so eagerly sought or so readily 
accepted. Most children, who attain them at all, now gain 
the capacities of accurate and artistic representation of ob- 
jects in three dimensions. For those who attain the higher 
capacities possible at this stage, drawing and other forms 
of art often become a passion once more as for many they 
are in early childhood. The great majority, however, never 
reach the point of high productive capacity, but must con- 
tent themselves with enjoyment of the work of others. 

What children draw. Children draw a great variety of 
things. One of the striking facts is the daring which at early 



im CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

stages leads them to attempt the impossible. The wind, the 
breath, the soul, heaven, or God, will be almost as readily 
attempted as things which can be seen. Certain dominant 
interests, however, consonant with other lines of interest, are 
easily recognizable. A number of studies have reduced them 
to percentages. Without carrying accuracy to such an ex- 
tent, especially since many drawings contain two or three of 
the dominant interests, a few tendencies may be mentioned. 
Younger children have decided preferences for human and 
animal forms; then come plants and flowers, houses, still- 
life objects; and last, conventional design and ornament, and 
in practically this order. Nearly three fourths of the spon- 
taneous drawings of six-year-olds either are of or contain 
human figures. From fourteen years on the order of interest 
is almost exactly reversed, ornament and design standing 
first, houses^and human figures lowest, with plants and ani- 
mals^joccupying middle ground at about one third their 
relative interest at six. 

Another striking and significant discovery is that little 
children rarely draw spontaneously from objects present. 
They draw absent objects as they remember them. Neither 
do they draw from the object as they see it when it is present, 
but rather they represent its striking features as they know 
them. Lukens found his attempt to have young children 
draw a representation of himself seated on a sofa a failure. 
The child used his usual symbol for man — a standing fig- 
ure — and drew the sofa behind it as a relatively unrelated 
separate object. Six-year-olds are not given to pictorial 
art. 

The linguistic character of drawing is well seen in chil- 
dren's illustrations of stories. Those of "Johnny-Look-in- 
the-Air," as reproduced in Barnes's Studies in Education 
(2, pp. 102-04; 154), and those of "Goldilocks and the Three 
Bears," as collected by Miss Flanders and reproduced by 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 197 

Miss Tanner (31, pp. 472 ff.)> are good illustrations among 
numerous others that have appeared. Any teacher can eas- 
ily collect similar ones. Barnes found an increase in the 
number of different scenes to thirteen, with a decrease there- 
after to sixteen years. Miss Flanders found much the same 
with fragments of scenes very common in the kindergarten 
and first grade. Almost all the drawings of the Goldilocks 
story are of landscapes rather than interior views, although 
the story strongly suggests the latter. Even with the eighth- 
grade children, who attempt more interior views, not more 
than twenty per cent did so. Barnes found that the scenes 
chosen are as a rule not the crises of the story, but points 
just before a crisis. 

There is every reason why serious consideration should 
be given to the spontaneous drawings of children in planning 
both the content and the method of courses in the subject. 
In no capacity are spontaneity and originality more precious; 
in none has the school more consistently ignored them. 
Fortunately, such studies as we here refer to have in recent 
years brought some radical reforms in art teaching, with 
most encouraging results. 

Characteristics of children's drawings. The outstanding 
characteristics of children's drawings almost all appear in 
their attempts to depict the human form, which is the most 
prominent interest all through early childhood. The "pic- 
torial evolution of man," as Lukens calls it, has been made 
the subject of most minute and detailed study by Partridge 
(15, p. 163), Brown (6), Lukens (21), Schuyten (15), Sully 
(30), and others, all of whom publish many typical draw- 
ings for each period. The study of a series of such drawings 
of an individual child, extending over a term of years, is 
one of the best possible indices of the progress of mental 
and manual development. Every teacher should sometime 
attempt some such study. Such a series is still more en- 



198 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

lightening if one can observe statedly the actual drawing 
of the figures, making note of the procedure, the comments 
of the child as he draws, and supplementary notes of one's 
own at the time. 

To begin with, the child, like the artist, uses every line 
but the straight line. His figures are in outline rather than 
in mass. It is perhaps uncertain what the result would be 
if children were allowed as free use of water-colors and brush 
as they are of pencil. We know of no published study in 
which the experiment has been thoroughly tried. As far 
as the studies go, it seems clear that use of mass and color 
are acquired much later than line and outline. Early draw- 
ings of the human figure are very incomplete as to parts, as 
all of the published drawings show. After the scribble stage 
is passed, an irregular circle, with the addition of eyes and 
mouth, often completes the figure. Soon lines for arms and 
legs are added. The figures seem symbolic, but yet there is 
often, for the child at least, individuality in them. As one 
traces the addition one by one of other details, it is evident 
that the incompleteness of the drawing indicates roughly 
the crudity of the child's ideas of form. Perhaps he sees 
clearly only those parts that he draws. He assimilates things 
first as wholes, and only later learns to analyze them into 
parts. Perhaps it is the mobility of limbs and the expres- 
siveness of the features of the face that attract attention to 
them first. However that may be, it is only gradually that 
body, neck, hands, feet, fingers, hair, ears, and various 
articles of clothing come to be recognized as essential parts 
which should be shown in the drawing. Profile drawings 
are, according to Barnes, not common before six years, are 
about equal to full face drawings at nine, and first attempts 
are often ridiculously crude. Often they are strangely mixed, 
half -profile, half -front views. Right-handed children usually 
draw profile figures facing the left. Double lines for repre- 




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200 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

sentation of the limbs are also usually lacking till the sixth 
or seventh year. 

In general, incompleteness, lack of proportion, balance, 
unity and relation of parts, absence of perspective, incon- 
sistencies, and other defects are striking features of all child 
drawings for some years. It has often been suggested that 
the defects shown in drawings are evidence of parallel de- 
fects in power of observation and capacity for thought. 
There is no doubt truth in the statement, provided it is not 
pushed too far. The same sort of crudities of thought will 
be brought out in our section on "Reasoning." We must 
not, however, think of the child's ideas of objects as being 
crude to anything like the same degree as his drawings. Most 
of us would hesitate to have the accuracy and completeness 
of our ideas of objects judged wholly by the correctness of 
the drawings we could make of them. 

The fact that for a long time drawings of the human form 
or of animals absorbs most of the interest of most children 
is in keeping with interests in other fields. Living, moving, 
dynamic objects, rather than static ones, are always chosen. 
Even when still-life objects are drawn, the dynamic nature 
of childhood often asserts itself. Smoke pours from the 
chimney of the house or engine, the trees sway in the wind, 
some living thing is indispensable to the landscape, the 
flowers have faces, all nature is animate to the child. Many 
other interesting details may be found in any of the type 
studies. We cannot follow them further. 

Individual and sex differences. The art of primitive man 
differed from that of primitive woman. The art capacity 
and the interests of boys and girls differ no less. Kerschen- 
steiner (15, p. 512) was so impressed with the sex differences 
that he holds that there should be different courses for boys 
and girls in the elementary schools. We shall attempt to give 
a condensed summary of the more significant sex differences 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 201 

that have been clearly brought out in the various researches. 
For this summary we are chiefly indebted to Hall (15, pp. 
493 ff.), who has culled them from widely scattered sources, 
although he does not bring them all together in a paragraph 
as we shall try to do. 

Hart found that in choosing pictures boys prefer battle 
scenes with plenty of action, but girls' choices depended 
more on secondary elements. Color interest declines more 
rapidly with boys than with girls. Lay found that objects 
spontaneously drawn or modeled by boys differed materially 
from those chosen by girls. Of children studied by Katz- 
eroff the girls more often drew objects right about them than 
did the boys. Schuy ten's study of drawings of the human 
form shows that girls remain longer in the first and second 
crude stages than do boys, and that the third stage is less 
well developed in them. Kerschensteiner adds to this that 
the conscious stage of perspective is attained two or three 
years later by girls than by boys, and that boys attain the 
stage of perfect representation earlier and more perfectly 
than girls. According to Levinstein girls tell in pictures 
more voluminously than boys. Boys draw taller and girls 
broader representations of persons (Schuy ten). Kerschen- 
steiner found that the tendency to rhythmic decoration of 
surfaces came earlier and was more developed with girls 
than boys, and thinks dress is a factor. The boy's superior- 
ity in representation of a whole in space he attributes to a 
better power of grasping general appearance. 

Girls surpass boys in accuracy of color perception, and 
are less often color blind. Schuyten found no differences 
between boys and girls in choice of the four colors standing 
in highest favor, but Jastrow, from 4500 records, found that 
the favorite color of women and especially young girls is 
red, while that of men is blue, and that this difference is 
decisive. Women also named more colors and more shades. 



tm CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

In ability for artistie expression it seems that on the whole 
boys have the better of it, though not always so from the 
standpoint of the school, for, as Hall says, boys are more 
original, but girls do better conventional school work. The 
great geniuses in art have been men with few exceptions. 
Ivanoff found more boys among the good and more girls 
among the bad drawers, yet the correlation between abil- 
ity in drawing and general ability is closer with girls than 
with boys. 

Turning to individual differences, we find that while the 
general features of children's drawings, taken en masse, are 
much the same for a given age, especially in the early years, 
yet, as Kerschensteiner (15, p. 511) found, after eight years 
individual differences between members of the same sex 
are very marked. Artistic genius often shows itself early. 
Burnham (8, p. 292) cites the names of ten great artists, all 
of whom showed marked promise between the ages of seven 
and thirteen. In choice of subjects to draw there is the widest 
range, especially after the beginning of the school age. Lay 
found 51 children, 28 girls and 23 boys, made in two and one 
half hours 230 things, "sampling almost every domain of 
nature and human life" (15, p. 505). Burnham believes it 
is too much to say that drawing is the natural means of 
expressing thought for all children, holding that the study 
of individuals will show that for many children "it is no more 
so than paper-cutting, or clay-modeling, or perhaps some 
other motor activity, such as running, pantomime, and 
various forms of dramatic impersonation" (8, p. 301). 
These facts should be had in mind in the preparation of 
art courses for schools, so that no one form of art and no 
narrow prescription of subjects should be held to for all 
children even of the same sex, and still less for those of dif- 
ferent sex. 

Correlations. Drawing calls for self-expression and motor 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 203 

ability. We should expect close correlations between it and 
abilities calling for these same capacities. A few studies have 
given attention to the matter. Kik (15, p. 512) finds positive 
correlation between drawing and other capacities, that for 
arithmetic being lowest. Ivanoff (15, p. 496) also found high 
correlations with geography, history, manual work, and 
visual memory subjects generally, but a low one with arith- 
metic. The visual type and the reflective type usually have 
radically different capacity for drawing and need differ- 
ent treatment. In spite of the fact noted by several ob- 
servers that those who draw well are also usually good in 
other subjects, it not infrequently happens that backward 
and defective children draw quite well. The reasons for 
this, so far as we know, have not been carefully studied. 
The whole subject of correlation of drawing ability with 
other capacities, and with mental ability in general, is one 
upon which too little investigation has yet been made to 
warrant any very definite conclusions. 

Values of drawing. The values of spontaneous drawing 
and other forms of artistic expression are many and impor- 
tant. By means of them images and concepts, discrimina- 
tions of form, dimension, and color are developed and per- 
fected, and by being thus objectified by the child himself, 
images having become clearer and more definite are better 
remembered. Drawing trains the eye to see and the hand 
to execute, and furnishes one of the best means of discovery 
of inaccuracies and disabilities along these lines. New inter- 
ests arise, those present are intensified, and both are revealed 
to those who take the trouble to observe child art sympa- 
thetically. 

Many phases of mental content, of psychic activity, and 
the degree and nature of motor capacity are more clearly 
revealed in drawing and constructive work than in almost 
any other way. Hall (15, p. 515) says, "if we only had a 



204 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

complete collection of all the drawings of a single child with 
proclivities for art, but who had been unrepressed by criti- 
cism or derision, we should find its very soul in each develop- 
mental stage represented." Such work prepares the way for 
aesthetic enjoyment and the development of taste for good 
art at the proper time. 

Geometric and mechanical drawing have a value of their 
own in this day of increasing use of charts, graphs, curves, 
and pictures, in presentation of the results of scientific 
statistical studies, of arts, industries, and all phases of life. 
Many books and magazine articles require for intelligent 
reading a knowledge of this visual language. 

Drawing, too, is healthful and hygienic, and prepares in a 
natural and easy way for the more exacting task of writing. 
Burnham (8) has pointed out, with great definiteness, 
hygienic values quite commonly overlooked — the health- 
fulness of any normal productivity, the normalizing of 
emotional life through such expression, and the sanifying 
and developing effect of objective interests and appreciations 
of which we have none too many. Lukens (21) even suggests 
that drawing has a cathartic effect of real moral value, and 
believes that some indulgence in depicting forbidden sub- 
jects may innoculate against the harmful indulgence of evil 
tendencies themselves. 

The aims of art teaching should then be clear. The pri- 
mary purpose should be the development of children rather 
than the making of artists. Spontaneity, initiative, and 
originality should be encouraged rather than repressed. 
The young artist must be kept in close and sympathetic 
touch with life, on levels well within the range of his interest 
and capacity. Ideals should not be set so high as to be un- 
attainable. They must be his ideals, not those of the teacher. 
Teachers should cease to attempt to get from children in the 
fifth grade work that looks like that of eighth-grade chil- 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 205 

dren. If art work lent itself less easily to exhibit purposes 
its educational values would less often suffer than now. 
As Hall suggests, we often lose sight of the value of drawing 
to the child in our attempts in our exhibits to evoke from 
the unthinking the exclamation, "How pretty!" It is a 
misfortune that, as Chamberlain says (9), " for ten geniuses 
of the nursery in drawing there remains hardly one in the 
high school. " Kerschensteiner's (20) study also suggests 
that many children with exceptional ability are often not 
discovered in the ordinary course of school work. Teachers 
should discover and develop originality and individual capac- 
ity in this as in other lines, and special training should be 
open to all who have talent. For most children the final 
result aimed at should be the cultivation of aesthetic appre- 
ciation, rather than artistic creation of a high order. Train- 
ing of hand and eye must result in cultivation of mind and 
heart. A few will become artists and art critics; the great 
majority should become lovers of art. 

Summary 

1. Artistic expression in some form is almost universal. 
At its basis lie the innate tendencies to manipulation, 
constructiveness, self-expression, communication, ses- 
thetic responsiveness, imitation, and perhaps others. 

2. There are interesting and instructive parallels between 
the art expression of children and that of the race, both 
as to the kinds of interests and the forms of execution. 

8. There are well-marked stages in interest in and capac- 
ity for drawing paralleling those in speech, and indica- 
tive of mental as well as manual development. A 
plateau stage characteristic of nearly all learning is 
clearly indicated. 

4. The development of aesthetic appreciation and manual 
ability do not run parallel, but improve in turn. 



g06 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

5. Some of the most striking characteristics of children's 
drawings are the following: — 

a. The preponderance of line and outline over mass 
and color, although this may be due to necessity 
and to imitation rather than to spontaneity. 

b. Incompleteness, lack of balance, unity, propor- 
tion, and composition. 

c. Unconventionality, boldness, originality. 

d. The preponderance of the pictorial over the 
decorative in early stages. 

e. The prevalence of pictographic and linguistic 
drawings. 

6. Interest in a finished product and in the technique 
of accomplishment comes relatively late. 

7. Rightly used, drawing, paper-cutting, clay-modeling, 
and other forms of artistic expression have educative 
values as yet little realized. 



QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. What are the instincts and innate tendencies which chiefly contribute 
to interest in drawing, painting, modeling, and the like ? 

£. Are there any significant parallels between the drawings of children 
and those of primitive peoples? What conclusions do you draw from 
them? 

3. Enumerate the striking characteristics of children's drawings. 

4. What definite traits of children are revealed in a study of their 
drawings? 

5. What changes of interest In drawing with age are most marked? 
Explain them. 

6. What relation has artistic ability to other capacities? Explain the 
relationship or lack of relationship. 

7. Are artists born or made? Explain fully. 

8. Do you think that marked ability for art work could be determined 
at an early age by a series of tests? What elemental capacities should 
they seek to test? 

9. Explain the unusual fascination of clay work for children. 
10. What relation does expression in art bear to art appreciation 



CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS 207 

11. Does artistic ability in drawing* clay, metal, or wood bear any relation 
to that in music? Why or why not? 

12. What aims for art teaching does a study of the spontaneous art 
expression of children suggest? 

13. What are the educational values of art expression and the study o! 
art? 

14. Bringing all our knowledge of child hygiene to bear, what are the 
important hygienic problems involved in art teaching? 



SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. Baldwin, J. M. Mental Development in the Child and the Race; Methods 

and Processes (1895), pp. 78-88. 
1. Barnes, E., and others. Studies in Education (1896-97), vol. 1, pp. 

22-23; 62-64; 102-08; 154-55; 178-81; 283-94; 338-43; 367-68. 

(Illustrated.) 
*3. Barnes, E., and others. Studies in Education (1902), vol. 2, pp. 34-35 J 

74-77; 109-11; 151-54; 163-79; 231-33; 271-73; 314-17; 352-55; 

388-91. (Illustrated.) 

4. Barnes, E. "The Art of Little Children"; in Ped. Sem. vol 3, pp. 

302-07. 

5. Barnes, E. "A Study of Children's Drawings"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 2, 

pp. 455-63. 

*6. Brown, E. E. (editor). "Notes on Children's Drawings"; in Univ. 
of Col. Studies (1897), vol. 2, no. 1, 75 pp. (Illustrated. Bibli- 
ography.) 
1 7. Burk, F. L. "The Genetic Versus the Logical Order in Drawing "; in 
Ped. Sem., vol. 9, pp. 296-323. 

*B. Burnham, W. H. "The Hygiene of Drawing"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 14, 
pp. 289-304. (Bibliography.) 
9. Chamberlain, A. F. The Child: A Study in the Evolution of Man (1900), 
pp. 173-211. 

10. Clark, J. S. "Children's Drawing"; in Educ. Rev., vol. 13, pp. 76-- 

82. 

11. Fitz, H. G. "Freehand Drawing in Education"; in Pop. Set. Mo., 

vol. 51, pp. 755-65. 

12. Gesell, A. L., and Gesell, Mrs. B. C. The Normal Child and Primary 

Education (1912), pp. 125-43. (Illustrated.) 

13. Gotze, C. Das Kind als Kunstler. (1898.) 36 pp. and 8 plates. (Bib- 

liography.) 

14. Groszmann, M. P. E. Some Fundamental Verities in Education (1911), 

pp. 59-118. 

15. Hall, G. S. Educational Problems (1911), vol. 2, pp. 493-554. 

Resume and digest of all important studies to date. 



&08 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

16. Hicks, Mary D. "Art in Early Education"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 2, pp. 

463-66. 

17. Hire, Y. The Origins of Art. (1900.) 331 pp. 

18. Hogan, Mrs. L. E. A Study of a Child. (1898.) 222 pp. 

Contains an interesting series of a child's drawings. 

19. Jordan, D. S. The Book of Knight and Barbara. (1899.) 265 pp. 

Contains an interesting series of children's drawings. 

*20. Kersehensteiner, G. Die Entwickelung der Zeicherischen Begabung. 

(1905.) 503 pp. 
*21. Lukens, H. T. "Children's Drawings in the Early Years"; in Ped. 

Sem., vol. 4, pp. 79-110. (Illustrated.) 
22. Lukens, H. T. "Drawings in the Early Years"; in Proc. N.E.A. 

(1899), pp. 945-51. 
*23. Major, D. R. First Steps in Mental Growth (1906), pp. 47-71; 250-67. 

24. O'Shea, M. V. "Some Aspects of Drawing"; in Educ. Rev., vol. 14, 

pp. 263-84. 

25. O'Shea, M. V. "Children's Expression through Drawing"; in Proc. 

N.E.A. (1897), pp. 1015-23. 

26. Ricci, C. "The Art of Little Children"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 3, pp. 303- 

07. 

27. Rouma> G. Le language graphique de V enfant. (1912.) 288 pp. (Illus- 

trated.) 

28. Sargent* W. "Experimental Pedagogy of Drawing"; in Jour. Educ. 

Psy. (1912), vol. 3, pp. 264-76. 

29. Scott, C. A. Social Education (1908), pp. 260-80. 

*30. Sully, J. Studies in Childhood (1895), pp. 298-398. (Illustrated.) 
*31. Tanner, Miss A. The Child (1915), pp. 465-86. (Illustrated. Bibli- 
ography.) 
*32. Tracy, R, and Stimpfl, J. The Psychology of Childhood (1909), pp. 166- 

79. (Illustrated.) 
S3. Watt, H. J. "^Esthetic Appreciation in Children"; in Child Study 
(1910), vol. 4, pp. 1-13. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 

Point of view. It is our purpose in this chapter to present 
the point of view of child morality which a sympathetic, first- 
hand study of children has developed; to suggest the moral 
and ethical bearing of a few typical studies of characteristic 
responses of children, upon which this point of view rests; 
to trace the evolution of moral ideas and of moral responsi- 
bility; and to suggest the relation of these facts to the shap- 
ing of conduct and character. In no field is it more essential 
to consider the biological, and especially the instinctive, 
factors in development. In chapter V we have shown that 
the child's first acts are instinctive, and that the nature and 
quality of these acts is predetermined by the organization 
of the nervous system which is an inheritance from his 
ancestry. Such acts presumably have, or once had, practical 
serviceability or they would not have become innate, but 
it is a mistake to attach moral quality to them. It is neither 
morally right nor wrong in the beginning for an infant to 
start when frightened, to recoil from pain, to cry when hurt, 
to take anything good for food when he is hungry, or to dis- 
play violent temper when his instincts are opposed — it is 
merely natural. In short, responses that are wholly instinc- 
tive are devoid of moral quality so far as the agent is con- 
cerned. For every new voyager upon life's wide expanse, 
chart, compass, and goal are subjectively derived. For him 
one act is as good as another until experience and training 
teach otherwise. An infant is at first neither good nor bad, 
neither moral nor immoral, but unmoral. Moral ideas and 
ideals, and therefore moral obligation and responsibility, 



210 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

grow out of experience reacting upon innate predisposi- 
tion. 

Among the responses which children instinctively make, 
some are beneficial, others detrimental; some are essentially 
social, others anti-social; some are pro-moral, others contra- 
moral. We who have the experience the child lacks have a 
right to term these natural acts good or bad; we have no 
right to call the child either. For him an act becomes good 
or bad when he recognizes its quality and its bearing upon 
his own welfare and that of others. He becomes good or 
bad when, recognizing the quality of acts, he chooses the 
right or the wrong. 1 In advancing this doctrine of moral 
evolution we do not deny an innate basis for the recognition 
of the moral qualities of acts. The capacity to attain moral- 
ity is inborn, but the moral code and the ethical ideals 
adopted by any individual are the result of experience and 
training, of habit and volition. Children are born with a 
potential moral nature; they are born into a social order 
permeated with conventional and customary standards and 
ideals. The innate tendencies to social and moral respon- 
siveness form the basis for acquirement of social manners, 
morals, and ideals. Children are by nature inclined strongly 
toward what is biologically right. The difficulties in the 
development of conventional morality are chiefly those inci- 

1 We are well aware that the natural or evolutionary view we here adopt 
has not been and is not universally accepted. Some have pictured child- 
hood in the darkest of colors. The theological doctrine of total deprav- 
ity, well expressed by St. Augustine, Calvin, Cotton Mather, Jonathan 
Edwards, and a host of other theologians, was long a dominant view. On 
the other hand, philosophers and poets, of whom Rousseau and Words- 
worth are typical, with a penchant for idealization, have advanced the doc- 
trine of original perfection portraying the essential goodness, purity, and 
glory of infancy "as it leaves the hand of the Creator." Neither of these 
views was based on a thoroughgoing study of the actual facts of child 
nature, which we hold to be the only basis upon which a correct view can 
be determined. We believe that the study of the actual facts of child devel- 
opment supports the evolutionary view. 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 211 

dent to the fact that social far more than biological heritage 
now determines what is right and wrong. 

Social nature of morality. In a very true sense morality 
is essentially social in origin and nature. Both individual 
and social morality are resultant in large measure from thf 
evolution of the social instincts. A large part of conventional 
morality is the outgrowth of social customs. No other view 
makes intelligible the fact that moral standards, habits, 
and ideals vary with age, race, era, stage of civilization, and 
with the evolution of particular human institutions such as 
the institution of family relationships. The quality of early 
conduct is for the doer largely a matter of purely personal 
concern with, at first, no recognition of its effect upon others 
or of obligation to modify his behavior because of such 
effects. This is only another way of saying that the indi- 
vidualistic instincts dominate at this stage. So long as this 
remains true the very essence of morality is lacking. Con- 
duct gets its moral quality chiefly from its effect upon 
others. The highest morality involves something of sacri- 
fice of self and of selfish, instinctive interests for the good 
of the group of which one is a part. It is doubtful whether 
individual morality exists apart from recognition of its social 
bearing. The possibility of morality rests far more than is 
commonly recognized upon innate tendencies toward re- 
sponses which gain social approval. If such tendencies were 
not stronger than those of an anti-social character, human 
society could not continue to exist. The principles of moral 
development and training are, therefore, to be based upon the 
facts of natural, instinctive behavior. For our present pur- 
pose the individualistic, social, and sex instincts are most 
significant. To trace the genesis of morality in detail in 
either the individual or the race would carry us too far 
afield. We must be content barely to indicate the cours< 
of evolution of individual morality. 



<m CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

In so far as the physical, mental, and temperamental 
equipment of children is hereditary, the foundation of 
character may be said to be laid before the child is born. 
The nature and degree of this hereditary factor will be exam- 
ined more fully a little later. Individual and social factors 
begin the formation of habits of right conduct at least as 
soon as the child is born. Undesirable instinctive responses 
may be suppressed or inhibited by uniformly associating 
displeasure with them; desirable ones become habitual 
through encouragement and satisfaction. So from the very 
beginning of life, conduct is shaped for good or ill by influ- 
ences outside the child himself as well as by internal factors. 
Long before the child himself has any other conception of 
the quality of his acts than that some bring pleasure and 
satisfaction, others displeasure and pain, much progress 
may be made toward laying the foundation of character in 
habit. Neglect, abuse, or ill health may, on the other hand, 
early undermine character, long before the child has come to 
the point of real responsibility for his acts. It is quite as 
true that the habits of childhood, for which the individual 
has little if any responsibility, determine character and 
volition, as it is that character determines the habits one 
shall or shall not acquire in maturer years. Good habits of 
eating, sleeping, playing, of responding to the will and pleas- 
ure of parents and others, established in infancy and early 
childhood, are almost a sine qua non in moral evolution 
preparing the way for self-control and self-direction in 
moral and ethical situations when real responsibility has 
had time to develop. 

The psycho-analytic studies of Freud, Jung, and others 
have recently laid strong emphasis upon the moral bearing 
of the emotions of infancy and childhood. Jung (34, p. 66) 
clearly voices the view of the psycho-analyst when he says: 
"It is not the good and pious precepts, nor is it any other 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 213 

inculcation of pedagogic truths that have a moulding influ- 
ence upon the character of the developing child, but what 
most influences him is the peculiarly affective state which 
is totally unknown to his parents and educators. The con- 
cealed discord between parents, the secret worry, the re- 
pressed hidden state with its objective signs which slowly 
but surely, though unconsciously, works its way into the 
child's mind, producing therein the same conditions and 
hence the same reactions to external stimuli. . . . The fa- 
ther and mother impress deeply into the child's mind the 
seal of their personality, the more sensitive and mouldable 
the child the deeper is the impression. Thus even things 
that are never spoken about are reflected in the child." 
An appreciation of the full significance of such subtle influ- 
ences in the formation of character would no doubt often 
explain many a moral failure at adolescence or later. 

It is of paramount importance from our point of view that 
the relation of instincts, emotions, and early habits to char- 
acter be clearly and firmly grasped before we attempt to 
determine by specific acts the moral culpability of a delin- 
quent or the moral praiseworthiness of one whose conduct 
is pleasing. Our contention is that many instinctive, emo- 
tional, and habitual responses of early life are essentially 
non-moral in character, but that they are the basis of both 
moral and immoral tendencies in later years. To further 
normal physical, mental, and emotional development in in- 
fancy is therefore to further in reality moral evolution as 
well. Then, as consciousness of the moral qualities of acts 
enters more and more into choice; as conscience is born and 
comes to assume control of instincts and habits; as social 
ideals rather than personal desires become dominant mo- 
tives; conduct becomes increasingly moral from subjective 
causes or, if these desirable ends fail to be attained in due 
time, we may justly charge immorality. 



£14 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

Stages of moral development. Moral insight and there- 
fore moral responsibility normally increase with age and 
intelligence. It is a mistake to say that children are not 
morally responsible for their conduct until adolescence, as 
some writers seem to imply. It is rather a matter of the 
degree of responsibility that we may rightly expect at differ- 
ent stages. Moral responsibility is no more the development 
of a day or a year than is the strength and coordination of 
a man's muscles a matter that can be acquired overnight. 
There is much to indicate that moral development is marked 
by much the same stages and crises that characterize the 
development of the physical body. We shall not attempt 
to characterize in detail, as many writers have done, the 
stages in moral evolution from birth to maturity. In this 
as in other fields we encounter the serious difficulty that 
the stages are overlapping, so that a clear picture of any stage 
would be misleading and detrimental rather than helpful. 
If the fact of individual differences is clearly kept in mind, 
if we recognize that intelligence and stage of physiological 
maturity are here far more important considerations than 
chronological age, and if the lines are not drawn too closely 
between periods, there is a certain value in characterization 
of the moral nature by periods. 

Infancy is essentially the non-moral stage in which con- 
duct, whether self -initiated or imposed, is largely instinctive. 
Right and wrong is for the child determined at first almost 
wholly by the effect of conduct upon himself. Conscience 
and a sense of obligation are lacking entirely. 

Early childhood may be spoken of as a preparatory stage 
during which habituation, imitation, and the development 
of the inhibitions, which in experience prove necessary, are 
laying a very essential foundation for true morality. The 
standards for conduct during this period are almost wholly 
external and arbitrary, from the child's viewpoint. Right 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 215 

and wrong are largely what is permitted and what is for- 
bidden rather than matters of principle. 

In later childhood the moral discriminations are more and 
more aroused. Children now come to feel more or less of 
obligation in some fields of conduct, and do what they feel 
is right or avoid what is wrong because of this feeling. In 
other fields they may appear still wholly unmoral. Con- 
science is at times clearly active and at times apparently 
inoperative. The period is one of transition. Moral con- 
cepts are rapidly built up in fields where the child is brought 
frequently and actively into situations which call for moral 
response from him. On the other hand, he often is notably 
obtuse and has little or no conception of right or wrong in 
matters knowledge of which his immaturity and lack of 
experience have kept from him. The most deceiving feature 
of this period is the fact, often overlooked, that children 
acquire from their elders a large fund of "verbal morality" 
without any adequate appreciation of the nature of real 
morality with its self-imposed feeling of obligation. There 
is no more fruitful source of misjudgment of the moral 
capacities of children than the failure to make this distinc- 
tion between verbal and real morality. 

With the dawn of adolescence comes the birth of the real 
moral self. The period has long been characterized as one 
of "storm and stress." A lack of harmony between the 
instincts, impulses, desires, ambitions, and ideals of youth, 
and the moral and ethical demands of adult society, is to 
some degree inevitable. The approach of physical and physi- 
ological maturity brings with it new desires, interests, in- 
stincts, and capacities, as well as new feelings of moral 
obligation. The conflict between the promptings of in- 
stincts and those of conscience is often severe and long con- 
tinued. If right habits have been early formed, if physical 
and mental development have been normal, and if environ- 



216 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

ment does not impose unnecessary difficulties, the struggle 
usually ends in an established moral adjustment. Where 
these conditions are lacking the difficulties of such adjust- 
ment are greatly multiplied. 

Normally later adolescence should see the harmonization 
of conflicting impulses, the settling of convictions, the willing 
assumption of all necessary obligations, the full develop- 
ment of moral responsibility. In the great majority of cases 
the final stones in the foundation of character are securely 
laid at this critical period that separates youth from matu- 
rity, but which is possessed of so many of the best traits of 
each. 

Types of child behavior. In no field have the researches 
of the earlier child study been more fruitful than in that 
of the bearing of instincts and innate tendencies upon con- 
duct. We cite here a few typical studies for their bearing 
upon the development of the moral nature. 

Ownership. Kline and France (37) and Mrs. Burk (9) 
have well shown that the impulse to gather, acquire, or 
collect, by any suitable means, articles which satisfy wants or 
please the fancy, is instinctive. Children do not have to be 
taught to collect and hoard property. What is collected is 
of much less importance than the activity involved in collect- 
ing, and yet property intrinsically quite worthless is zealously 
guarded. This desire for personal ownership arises very 
early and is usually very strong, but respect for the owner- 
ship rights of others is a much later development. Children 
do have to be taught the property rights of others. Of 406 
cases studied by Kline and France, eighty per cent "would 
beg, cheat, or steal to get the coveted article " (37, p. 263). 
Speaking of normal children under five years and of many 
others even up to fourteen or fifteen years, these authors 
say, "We have found that the desire to own is one of the 
strongest passions in child life; that selfishness is the rule; 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 217 

that children steal, cheat, lie without scruple to acquire 
property; that they have no idea of proprietary right" (37, 
p. 266). This they hold to be natural. The complex con- 
ception of property rights as established by society is 
acquired slowly by the child, and arises out of experience 
of these rights in both self and others. Many instances 
are cited to show that respect for the rights of others had, 
in individual cases, arisen only with the full appreciation 
of the value to the individual himself of something into 
which he had put something of himself. A child who has 
never had anything which he could rightfully call his own is, 
on this principle, ill-prepared to appreciate the rights of 
others. The cure for theft and other forms of misappropria- 
tion of property is to no small degree the development of a 
keen sense of the significance and right of ownership. 

The boys of the McDonough farm, as Johnson (33) tells 
the story in his Rudimentary Society among Boys, furnish an 
excellent illustration of the way the concept of property 
rights develops naturally among adolescents and the way 
in which respect for those rights establishes and maintains 
itself. The crude and primitive nature of the boys' laws and 
of the means of their enforcement clearly shows reasons for 
the inability of the boy of the city slums to make ready ad- 
justment to the highly complex requirements of modern 
city life. Instinct and impulse are earlier and stronger than 
ideas and ideals of social responsibility. The fact that ninety 
per cent of the petty thieving of city boys' gangs is of things 
to eat and drink, and that many other cravings no less in- 
sistent than those of appetite impel to violation of the laws 
of society, should indicate both a condition and the remedy. 

Miss Darrah (15, pp. 212 and 254) and others have found 
a natural increase in regard for law with age and experience. 
In early years the binding nature of law is not recognized 
in any abstract moral sense. In a hypothetical case, even 



218 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

when the children were told what the legal penalty was, Miss 
Darrah found that at seven years only eleven per cent pre- 
scribed the legal penalty when asked what should be done. 
This increased to twenty-nine per cent at twelve years, and 
to seventy-four per cent at sixteen years. 

All such studies as these clearly indicate the evolutionary 
nature of the moral ideas of children, and the place of instinct 
and habituation in the development of morality. 

Curiosity. In curiosity we have another innate tendency 
which gives rise to certain undesirable traits. Smith and 
Hall (29, pp. 129-132) cite instances in which curiosity led 
to destructiveness in twenty-eight per cent of the 1247 chil- 
dren they studied. Investigation of the motives in all these 
cases is conclusive that "wanton destructiveness or care- 
lessness played a very small part." On the whole, this 
tendency is a natural and irresistible one, closely related to 
constructiveness, and needs direction rather than repression. 
A certain amount of what seems serious violation of prop- 
erty values is in reality not rightly to be considered inten- 
tionally so, to say the least. Mrs. Schoff's (49) illustration 
of the homeless, friendless girl of eight years of age, who set 
fire to a house "to see the fire burn and the engines run," 
is typical of many. This child was in no sense "a prodigy of 
crime," as the papers stated, nor a "born criminal." If 
she had been either she would hardly be, as she is, a gradu- 
ate of a normal school and an assistant principal of a Penn- 
sylvania public school. Ignorance and neglect coupled with 
innate curiosity are quite sufficient as an explanation of her 
act. Similarly, many cases of apparent wanton cruelty are 
shown to be due, "not to any real impulse toward cruelty, 
but to ignorance and to an impulse which, when properly 
directed, is the prototype of scientific investigation" (29, 
p. 104). 

Truancy. Custom and law regard truancy from home 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 219 

and from school as a punishable delinquency, and it cannot 
be denied that if persisted in it is a fruitful source of delin- 
quencies much more serious than the offense itself. It 
must not be overlooked, however, that Kline's (36) ques- 
tionnaire studies, and the more recent one of Davenport 
(16), have shown that nomadic tendencies have a very strong 
instinctive and hereditary basis. At certain seasons and 
ages there surges through the veins, of the boy especially, 
a strong impulse to throw off restraint, to strike out for self, 
to see the world, to slough off all conventional and usual 
forms of social restraint and wander alone, or with some 
congenial companion, often to drink in from Nature herself 
what the tingling senses call out for. The Wanderlust is one 
of the most natural of impulses. Were it not for what it 
leads to through idleness and temptation, the impulse it- 
self might often be followed with small danger of perma- 
nent injury, and frequently with most beneficial results. 
Kline's study of the motives for truancy reveals little intent 
toward wrongdoing in such breaks from the restraint of 
home and school. In many cases the serious charge must 
be brought against the home and the school, and against 
society for failure to provide normal and harmless, not to 
say educative and helpful, avenues for the exercise of the 
innate tendencies which lead to truancy. Many of these 
underlying impulses are not only harmless, but useful and 
desirable. The doctrine of catharsis can be helpfully applied 
in this connection. Some normal outlet for the impulses of 
this class seems the best means to ultimate control and tam- 
ing of refractory racial impulses. Punishment and repression 
often prove to be most unsatisfactory remedies. There is 
certainly nothing essentially wrong in the act itself. Puffer 
(47) has many helpful suggestions which, if heeded by par- 
ents and teachers, may turn this impulse to valuable educa- 
tive and normalizing erds. 



220 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

Children's lies. Hall's (27, vol. 1, pp. 345-87) extended 
and careful study of children's lies reveals clearly the evo- 
lutionary nature of veracity. It seems unquestionably 
certain that many of the early falsehoods of children are 
totally devoid of moral culpability. In the lie of imagina- 
tion the child himself is deceived. In that of selfishness his 
self-preservative instincts so strongly dominate that, until 
trained to bear the consequences of his own acts, he cannot 
be held to strict accountability. Hall summarizes the results 
of numerous experimental studies of the psychology of 
report which seem to show that young children are lacking 
in those mental capacities which make it possible for them 
either to tell a literal truth or falsehood. Several of the 
German writers seriously question whether children can tell 
real lies before four years of age. The concept of truth has 
first to be developed, then the feeling of obligation to tell 
the truth. Neither is innate, and in reality it would be some- 
what startling to find a child who from the beginning could 
and did tell the literal truth from a sense of obligation. 

Obstinacy and disobedience. Dr. Theodate Smith (54) 
made a careful questionnaire study of 1418 cases of obsti- 
nacy, willfulness, contrary-mindedness, and disobedience, 
which throws some interesting light upon the evolution of 
self-control and social self-direction. She is convinced that 
"some cases of obstinate and persistent disobedience un- 
doubtedly have their origin in strong instinctive desires 
which the child neither understands nor knows how to 
inhibit" (p. 29). Some cases are clearly chargeable to physi- 
cal conditions, such as malnutrition, eye-strain, fatigue, and 
the like. Extreme forms are often found with the feeble- 
minded, which seems to indicate that intelligence is an 
important factor in the development of obedience and self- 
control. Some cases are clearly due to injustices and arbi- 
trariness on the part of older persons. From consideration 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 221 

of all the extremely varied and highly complex bodily and 
mental states involved in obstinacy, the writer concludes 
that obstinacy is due to weakness and not, as is often popu- 
larly supposed, to strength of will (p. 44). Hereditary fac- 
tors, particularly instinctive ones, are complicated with 
immediate and remote environmental factors in ways which 
make adjustment extremely difficult for untrained human 
nature. Occasional attacks of obstinacy and disobedience 
are normal for all healthy children, since infancy and child- 
hood are essentially egoistic and dominated by emotions, 
impulses, and instinctive desires which often overbalance 
considerations of social obligation, expediency, and even 
actual desire to please and obey another. In a very true 
sense the capacity for obedience to authority and law is a 
resultant of will training. For real self-control a strong will 
properly trained is essential. The weak-willed may learn 
conformity to authority, but he learns self-control with 
difficulty. This is what Sully (56) means when he asserts 
that the most rebellious children are biologically the best. 
The same conclusion may be drawn from Bohannon's (5) 
contention that timidity and weakness are associated with 
exceptional obedience of a formal sort, but that exceptional 
obedience of a real, self-initiated sort usually issues from 
exceptional courage and strength of will. The child who has 
learned self-control and self -direction has little difficulty in 
adjusting himself to conventional moral ideas and ideals 
when these are intelligibly presented; one who has failed in 
these virtues falls in time of stress. 

The point we wish to emphasize in this connection is the 
evolutionary nature of these virtues and their relation to the 
ultimate development of character. Self-mastery hardly 
comes without some self-assertion; a consciousness of power, 
capacity, and strength can hardly be realized without the 
matching of self against the will of another. A feeling of the 



222 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

justice, necessity, and reasonableness of law grows out of 
the experience of insufficiency of self, and conformity to law 
ought to and usually does result from full appreciation of 
social dependence and accountability. All this, however, 
requires time and training in control of instincts. 

Teasing and bullying. Burk's (8) study of these trouble- 
some and often reprehensible tendencies clearly indicates 
that they are no less natural than truancy, obstinacy, or 
untruthfulness. The dynamic, inquiring disposition of 
childhood so essential to cultivation of sensory and motor 
capacities often leads inevitably to unintentional as well as 
to intentional abuse of the rights and feelings of other per- 
sons and those of animals. Few traits of childhood are more 
troublesome and distressing to parents and teachers than 
those shown by the tease or the bully, and yet Burk's study 
of many concrete cases absolves a large percentage, of 
younger children at least, from any great degree of culpa- 
bility for the pain and injury which their acts often cause. 
Curiosity, ignorance, and uncontrollable impulses are here 
again often sufficient explanation. The tease and the bully 
are more often in need of moral enlightenment and actual 
physical and mental experience of personal discomfort and 
pain as a means of acquiring fellow-feeling than they are of 
retributory punishment, imposed, perhaps, without regard 
to the nature of the offense which may have been committed 
quite without intent of wrong. 

Imitation. Many studies of infancy and childhood show 
that the innate tendency to imitate is one of the most far- 
reaching of all the native capacities for good or bad conduct. 
Children do what they see others do. For years they have 
no higher criterion of right and wrong than the example of 
those about them. Much of conventional etiquette, custom, 
manners, and even what we rightly consider habits of very 
vital moral concern, is acquired by the child imitatively long 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 223 

before its moral quality is appreciated. On the other hand, 
much which tends strongly in the direction of serious im- 
morality is similarly acquired in perfect innocence of wrong. 
For example, how is a child to know that it is wrong to steal 
coal from the railroad tracks if he sees every one doing it, and 
is commended by his parents as a good boy because he keeps 
the coal box full? How is a child to learn to speak the truth 
when he hears his father boast of business success based 
upon falsehood, or sees his mother dodge some unpleas- 
ant social obligation by a plain falsehood unblushingly 
uttered? 

Partridge (46) finds that many times curiosity and the 
imitative impulse, coupled with the gregarious instinct, lead 
to the drink habit. The boy's desire to smoke almost uni- 
versally arises from the same impulses. Recognition of the 
physical and moral effects of habits in these matters cannot 
be expected of children in the absence of direct instruction, 
and considering the strength of the impulses underlying 
them cannot be considered serious moral offenses in the 
immature and uninstructed. 

This whole group of studies and many more which could 
be cited from the early literature of child study, whether we 
look upon them as thoroughly scientific in method and re- 
sults or not, have thrown a flood of light upon the ground- 
work and "raw material of morality" which cannot be 
lightly passed by if we wish to know the steps by which 
the child attains conventional and real morality. In the 
instincts and their proper treatment lie the clues which the 
teacher must carefully study and thoughtfully follow out in 
setting the moral and ethical goals toward which moral 
training must aim. Many of them are non-moral; some, due 
to the vast and sudden accumulation of social heritage, are 
anti-social or contra-moral, but withal natural and inevitable. 
Without them, however, the building-up of habits and ideals 



224 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

would be even more difficult than it is with them. Man's 
long and eventful past cannot be ignored in the moulding of 
hirf present and future character. 



Summary 

1. Children are not moral or immoral, but non-moral to 
begin with. 

2. The basis of both moral and immoral conduct is to be 
found in the instincts. 

3. The development of morality is largely dependent upon 
the capacity to appreciate and react to moral ideas 
and ideals. This capacity is inborn, but requires de- 
velopment. Feeble-mindedness seriously impairs this 
capacity and is therefore a prime factor in delinquency. 

4. Acquired physical defects standing alone are a less 
important factor than many have tried to make out. 

5. Hereditary defects, other than mental deficiency, are 
by no means a negligible factor, although not a major 
one. 

6. Morality is essentially social in origin and significance 
and develops best in social situations. 

7. The stages of moral development can be only roughly 
marked off because morality depends much more upon 
intelligence and training than upon age. 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Observe and attempt to analyze several cases of extreme obstinacy- 
Consider exciting causes, physical and mental symptoms, instinctive 
elements, motor control, etc. 

J2. Collect instances of untruthfulness due to imagination, to selfishness, 
to the impulse of self-preservation, to the impulse to shield another, 
to faulty home training, to "natural perversity." 

3. Collect instances among young children of misappropriation of things 
of value belonging to others. Determine in which cases moral culpa- 



MORAL NATURE OF CHILDREN 225 

bility can be rightfully charged and suggest appropriate treatment 
of each case on its merits. 

4. Get first hand information about several cases of truancy. Con- 
sider the factors of age, season, home surroundings, interests, physi- 
cal condition, school history. Find out where the time was spent and 
what was done. What blame do you attach to the child in each case 
and what remedy do you suggest? 

5. Cite instances of curiosity which led to unintentional destruction of 
property or harm or annoyance to other persons. 

6. Gather instances of disobedience due to a weak time sense, to the 
impulse of egoistic self-assertion; to the dominance of other strong 
instinctive tendencies. Prescribe appropriate treatment in each case. 

7. Collect instances of teasing and bullying that have been successfully 
cured and give details of the means by which it was done. 

8. Give a list of moral offenses which may be charged largely to imita- 
tion. 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The bibliography for this chapter is combined with that at the close of 
chapter x. 



CHAPTER X 

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 

Still further to illustrate our view of the evolutionary 
nature of child morality we shall turn, in this chapter, to a 
somewhat detailed study of juvenile delinquency. This is 
the pathology of morality, and just as it has been found 
that physical and mental pathology have given us some 
of our best insight into what is physically and mentally 
normal, so we believe a study of delinquency holds many 
suggestions of value for us in our attempt to understand the 
nature of child morality and the means of its development. 

Definition. The term crime has almost passed from use 
as a designation of the anti-social and immoral acts of chil- 
dren under sixteen or seventeen, — in California even 
twenty-one years of age. The milder term delinquency has 
been adopted in most of our juvenile court laws. Under 
the California law a child guilty of law-breaking is designated 
merely a "ward of the court/ 5 ' so that for these years the 
recognition of moral immaturity has gone so far that de- 
'pendency and delinquency are in effect almost synonymous 
terms. In the Colorado law, which has been a model for 
many others, the term juvenile delinquent is defined so 
broadly as to insure the court jurisdiction in every case in 
which a child's future welfare is at stake. Children of cer- 
tain ages may be legally declared delinquent if it is clear 
that they are in danger of drifting into crime by reason of 
bad associates, idleness, truancy, evil example and environ* 
ment, aimless wandering about the streets at night or about 
railroads, immoral conduct, and the like, as well as for the 
commission of overt violations of state, city, or village laws 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 227 

or ordinances. In no case is such a child called a criminal 
or treated as such. This radical change in laws regarding 
childhood and youth, which belongs almost wholly to the 
twentieth century, evidences a revolution of attitude regard- 
ing the moral nature of children. The doctrine of innate 
goodness or innate badness of human nature has been dis- 
carded for the doctrine of moral evolution. The assumption 
of law is that the moral nature and moral accountability 
have to be developed, and that till they are it is a misuse of 
terms to designate even an overt anti-social or immoral 
act a crime or the actor a criminal. 

Causes. The underlying cause of juvenile delinquency, 
the explanation of the greater prevalence and wider distribu- 
tion of offenses among the young, and the relative and abso- 
lute increase in the number of such offenses which statistics 
the world over have shown in recent years, is the moral 
immaturity of children and the increasing complexity of 
modern social and industrial life. Apart from such general 
statement, all the numerous efforts of the past forty years 
to center upon some one chief cause seem doomed to failure. 
The net result of these efforts has been to impress the extreme 
complexity of the problem of causation. To hold with 
Lombroso and the Italian school that most true criminals 
are a "born" anthropological type is less satisfying now as 
an explanation than at any time since 1876, when the theory 
was first proposed. To hold with Morrison, Travis, with 
the sociological school generally, with the majority of social 
workers, and with probation officers as a class that the de- 
fective home, bad environment, or social and economic con- 
ditions are the chief cause, needs specification. To try to 
prove that imitation, or alcoholism, or epilepsy or feeble- 
mindedness, physical or psychic atavism, or any other of 
the known contributory factors, is the chief one, as has often 
been done, seems to the author to lay one liable to the 



228 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

charge of ignorance of the fact that the causes are as com- 
plex and as varied as human nature itself. There is no one 
cause. Nothing is clearer than that every delinquent is an 
individual problem whose case deserves to be studied as 
such. He and not merely his offense must be studied. 
Healy (31) has once for all made this clear. The causes of 
delinquency vary with age, sex, intelligence, with the indi- 
vidual, with climatic, seasonal, and geographic factors, and 
with environmental conditions. Here again we are faced 
with that interminable question of heredity versus environ- 
ment, discussed in an earlier chapter. There is the widest 
difference of opinion on this question as well as on that of 
the relative proportion of delinquency chargeable to each 
of the specific hereditary and environmental factors. We 
shall try in the brief space at our disposal to present some- 
thing of the consensus of view among the more careful 
scientific students of the subject as to the etiology of delin- 
quency, in the hope that those who desire to aid construc- 
tively in its prevention may better understand the nature 
of their problem. 

Hereditary causes. Lombroso and his followers believed 
that they had discovered an anthropological type marked 
by definite, atavistic, physical stigmata, chiefly of the head 
and face, which marked the criminal as an individual who 
had reverted to or been arrested in a stage of development 
belonging to an ancient human or pre-human type. The 
physical stigmata oftenest mentioned were: thick head of 
hair, thin beard, large cheek-bones, asymmetrical skull, 
anomalies of ear, eye, nose, palate, teeth, feet, fingers, and 
the like. The person showing five of these traits was thought 
to be certainly a potential if not an actual criminal. Gara- 
falo (64, p. 62) believed that it was not only possible to pick 
out the criminal from among normal persons eighty times 
out of one hundred, but even to tell what crime he had 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 229 

been or would be guilty of. Lombroso's was one of the first 
theories to apply the evolutionary principle, so that it is not 
surprising that he also took the contra-moral instinctive 
tendencies of children as evidence that "the germs of moral 
insanity and crime occur in normal fashion during the first 
years of man's life, just as in the embryo we are constantly 
meeting with forms which, in the adult, are monstrosities " 
(10, p. 365). Unfortunately for the theory, Lombroso's data 
came chiefly from study of adult Italian criminals, and con- 
firmation of it is lacking, especially with the young. Travis 
(64), after several years of study of the literature and statis- 
tics of crime, supplemented by extensive first-hand study of 
institutional criminals in this country and in Europe, finds 
the Lombrosian type very rarely. In one institution only 
one such case was found among three hundred inmates, 
and he was Italian. It has also been shown that these stig- 
mata are quite common with the insane who are not at the 
same time criminal. Travis's (64) wide observation brought 
the conviction that the possession of two or three such traits 
is not at all uncommon among normal individuals. Recent 
studies of mental defectives strongly suggest that the pick- 
ing out of all feeble-minded criminals would probably re- 
sult in leaving the large balance almost if not entirely as 
free from such defects as average normal persons. This 
would undoubtedly be still truer in the case of children. 
Many feeble-minded delinquents and criminals do approach 
the Lombrosian type. 

For the theory of psychic atavism the case seems some- 
what stronger. Excellent presentations of this theory can 
be found in the studies of Swift (57) and Dawson (17). The 
absence of clearly defined moral ideas, habits, ideals, and 
feelings of obligation in childhood put it on the plane of 
primitive man. This, together with the racial heritage of 
instincts, many of which must be entirely eradicated, or at 



230 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

least radically modified, to meet the requirements of mod- 
ern civilized society, makes the child a potential delinquent 
if those influences which further moral evolution are lack- 
ing. Swift, by a rather limited investigation of the boyhood 
Df highly reputable adults, tries to show that all children 
pass through a delinquent stage. His conviction is that 
reform-school boys with few exceptions " are quite repre- 
sentative of the average active, normal boy," and that the 
unbiased investigator must be convinced that, " after all, 
probably the only reason why he and his boyhood asso- 
ciates did not graduate from the same sort of institution 
was the difference in their environment" (57, p. 33). For 
him " the so-called criminal instincts of children are the 
racial survivals of acts that in past ages fitted their pos- 
sessors to survive," and w a period of savagery, or semi- 
criminality, is normal for all healthy boys" (p. 78). He 
believes that the fact, borne out by statistics, that of chil- 
dren whose parentage is known to be bad and whose en- 
vironment has been almost everything it should not have 
been, eighty to eighty-five per cent grow up to be young 
men and women of good character after they are placed in 
better surroundings proves his contention. Bonger (6, p. 
378) takes much the same view when he says, " from a 
biological point of view almost all crimes must be ranked as 
normal acts." Killing, theft, robbery, rape, and the like 
were once natural, common, and biologically normal acts. 
It was only as such acts evoked the moral disapprobation 
of society that they became immoral. Not a few other 
criminologists have taken this view that the criminal is a 
type of individual whose psychic or moral evolution has 
been arrested at a stage representative of an earlier human 
type. On this view the problem of delinquency becomes 
that of curtailing, controlling, and redirecting of the racial 
heritage by sane, wise, and rapid induction into the social 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 231 

heritage of the present, and the avoidance of either physi- 
cal or mental arrest of development. 

Instincts and crime. The natural instincts and the ig- 
norance due to the moral immaturity of children are an 
exceedingly important causative factor. Jane Addams 
speaks of delinquency as " instincts gone wrong." The un- 
deniable right and necessity for play, of which we have 
already spoken, denied its legitimate opportunity all too 
often leads to natural and unintentional violations of city 
ordinances, the first arrest, incarceration with those already 
delinquent, and on to confirmed delinquency. A police 
officer in Chicago testified that the opening of one of the 
great public playgrounds of that city reduced delinquency 
in its tributary district by more than thirty-three per cent 
in a single year, and saved no less than sixteen lives besides. 
Jacob Riis, in his various books on the life of New York's 
East Side, has clearly shown that, when legitimate play 
facilities are lacking, the quest for excitement and adven- 
ture, which is natural and normal in all healthy boys, leads 
again and again to delinquency. Mrs. Barnett (4, p. 12) 
reports that " during 1911, 605 children were brought be- 
fore the Birmingham Juvenile Court for non-indictable 
offenses including: 13& playing football in the streets, 43 
gambling, 34 willful damage, and 64 disorderly conduct." 
Most of this delinquency presumably could have been pre- 
vented by legitimate opportunity for the outlet of normal 
instinctive tendencies. The West Side Studies (23), as well as 
the police and court records of every city, show the same. 
Consider the relation of normal instinctive tendencies to 
the following fist of charges quoted by Jane Addams (1, 
pp. 55-56), just as they appeared in order on the records of 
the Juvenile Court of Chicago: — 

1. Building fires along the railroad tracks. 

2. Flagging trains. 



232 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

3. Throwing stones at moving trains. 

4. Shooting at the actors in the Olympic Theater with sling 
shots. 

5. Breaking signal lights on the railroad. 

6. Stealing linseed oil barrels from the railroad to make a fire. 

7. Taking waste from an axle box and burning it upon the rail- 
road tracks. 

8. Turning the switch and running the street car off the track. 

9. Staying away from home to sleep in barns. 

10. Setting fire to a bam in order to see the fire engines come up 
the street. 

11. Knocking down signs. 

12. Cutting Western Union cable. 

In such offenses as these, racial heritage and unsuitable 
environment unite to bring about the moral degradation 
of boys and girls. 

Feeble-mindedness and crime. A great number of re- 
cent studies has shown that feeble-mindedness is one of 
the important causes of permanent delinquency. Goddard 
(21) has recently shown that mental defect is hereditary 
in perhaps sixty-five to seventy-five per cent of the cases. 
If his estimate is correct, feeble-mindedness is largely an 
hereditary factor. Woods (68, p. 263), ten years or more 
ago, reported that " there is a very distinct correlation in 
royalty between mental and moral qualities." Morrison, 
in 1897, stated that " at least a third of these juveniles are 
below the average healthy standard in general mental 
power " (44, p. 20), although he had no accurate tests upon 
which to base his estimate. Just what part mental defect 
plays in the production of crime we are only beginning to 
learn owing to the recency, and still tentative nature, of 
the means for its accurate measurement. The most careful 
studies of this matter by the best means available — the 
Binet-Simon and similar tests of intelligence — find the 
percentage of actual feeble-mindedness among delinquents 
very much larger than among children in general. Unques- 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 253 

tionably the percentage was placed too high in the studies 
of five years ago, but to place it at not less than twenty- 
five to thirty for non-selected delinquents of the juvenile 
court and institutional classes will certainly be considered 
quite conservative. This, as compared with one or two 
per cent among the ordinary school population, as deter- 
mined by the same tests, gives some idea of the importance 
of this factor alone. 

In the accompanying table (on page 234) we list the 
findings of a few of the more careful recent studies of the 
mental condition of delinquents. 

It will be noted that there is wide variation in the per- 
centage of mental defectives found among delinquents by 
various investigators. This is due to a lack of uniform- 
ity in the tests used, to a lack of agreement as to just what 
degree of defect shall be termed feeble-mindedness, to a 
lack of uniformity of procedure and of skill in conducting 
the various studies, to the fact that some groups tested are 
selected and others non-selected, that some were children 
and others adults, to the possible sex difference, the small 
number of cases in some studies, and perhaps to other vari- 
able factors. We are just at the point now of determining 
the effect of these variable factors, and should within a few 
years have very definite information on all these matters. 
We shall then be in a position to estimate pretty definitely 
how much of delinquency is primarily due to feeble-mind- 
edness alone. 

Significance of feeble-mindedness. Courts of law and 
the public generally are just beginning to recognize the 
bearing of feeble-mindedness upon moral accountability, 
education, and training. In his book, The Criminal Imbe- 
cile, Goddard (22) presents an analysis and discussion of 
three typical cases, the first in which the results of diagnosis 
with the 3inet-Simon tests were admitted in evidence in 



234 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



Table VHI 
Intelligence Tests of Juvenile Delinquents 



Observer 


No. cases 


Sez 


Percentage 
feeble- 
minded 


Classes tested 


Goddard and 
Hill 


56 


F 


66(?) 


Reform School 


Goddard 


100 




66 


Juvenile Court 


Fernald,G.G. 


100 




25 


Reform School (Mass.) 


Dewson 


1186 


F 


23 


Industrial School (Pa.) 


Sullivan 


114 


F 


32(?) 


Prison (England) 


Bowers 


100 




23 


Prison (Ind.) 


Hickson 


245 


M 


87 


Court (Chicago) 

(Selected from 600 cases) 


Benz 


100 


F 


36 


Reform School (Ohio) 


Healy 


1000 


M&F 


10 


Psychopathic Inst. (Chicago) 
(Selected recidivists) 


Aschaffenburg 


495 




13.5 


Reform School (Germany) 


Monkenmoller 


134 


M 


50 


Neglected (Berlin) 


Pintner 


100 


M&F 


46 


Court (Columbus, O.) 


von Klein- 
Schmid 


1000 


... 


50 


Prison (Jeffersonville, Ind.) 


Terman and 
Williams 


150 


M 


28 


Industrial School (Gal.) 


Fernald,G.M. 


135 


F 


33 


Industrial School (Cal.) 



this country. The case of Jean Gianini, indicted for the 
murder of his former teacher, is the first in which the result 
of such diagnosis has resulted in acquittal. The verdict was, 
" We find the defendant in this case not guilty as charged; 
we acquit the defendant on the ground of criminal imbecil- 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 235 

ity " (p. 2). This verdict marks an epoch in criminal pro- 
cedure in that it " recognizes that weakness of mind, as an 
excuse for crime, is of the same importance as disease of 
mind " (p. 2). Few judges or juries have as yet taken the 
stand of those in the Gianini case. Within a year Charles 
Oxnam, seventeen years of age, but declared by eight phy- 
sicians and four psychologists, of whom the writer was one, 
to be of not more than eight- or nine-year intelligence, has 
paid the life penalty at the hands of the State of California 
for a murder for which his mental defect made him at least 
as irresponsible as a child of nine, working under the direc- 
tion of a more intelligent accomplice. Mental defect does 
not mitigate the seriousness of the crime. Those who would 
prevent the legal murder by the State in such cases wish 
merely to save the State the humiliation of taking the life 
of irresponsible children whose crimes are a natural result 
of the failure of society itself in allowing the unrestricted 
reproduction of mental defectives whom, when born, it 
fails to safeguard against almost inevitable delinquency of 
a more or less serious sort. They would arouse the State 
to its obligation to protect both itself and these unfortunates 
by humane and effective measures such as are now known. 
Why does feeble-mindedness so strongly predispose to 
delinquency? Terman (61, p. 35) answers that true " moral- 
ity depends upon two things : (a) the ability to foresee and 
to weigh the possible consequences for self and others of 
different kinds of behavior; and (b) upon the willingness 
and capacity to exercise self-restraint." It is just these 
capacities which the feeble-minded lack far more than chil- 
dren of average intelligence. Moral judgment, inhibition, 
and resistance to suggestion are " functions of intelligence " 
far more than they are of chronological age. Goddard (22, 
n. 95) expresses his conviction, " born of a study of normal 
children and also of mental defectives twelve years and 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

under in mentality, that persons of this mentality do not 
know much about right and wrong. They act upon im- 
pulse and upon instinct, without very much thought." 
This fact is often not recognized by the superficial observer 
because he fails to make the distinction Goddard clearly 
makes between verbal morality, learned parrot-like, and 
that deep-seated conviction of wrong which alone grows 
out of a full normal and intelligible experience and which 
does not come till the years of adolescence. The imbecile 
may know the nature of his act — that is, what he is doing 
— without knowing fully its quality, to understand which 
he must " know all of the elements, forms, or modes of be- 
ing or action which seem to make it distinct from all other 
acts . . . know it is unjustifiable " (pp. 96-98). Goddard's 
(22) description of three typical cases of criminal imbecile 
murderers, cited above, illustrates three ways in which such 
persons fall into crime. One knew what he was doing, but 
did not know the quality of his act, and lacked the neces- 
sary capacity for inhibition under a strong instinctive-emo- 
tional complex. The second knew the nature and possibly 
the quality of his act, but had not the power to resist the 
subtle suggestion of his accomplice. The third knew both 
the nature and quality of his deed, but failed in capacity 
to think the whole situation through in a reasonable and 
intelligent way. This does not argue that all murderers 
are lacking in intelligence, for normal intelligence must 
also be accompanied by normal will and emotion, but does 
clearly show that lack of intelligence makes the individual 
much more likely to commit crime, especially under stress. 
Such persons fail to learn the lessons which persons of nor- 
mal intelligence gather readily from the numberless com- 
mon incidents of daily life. 

Other hereditary causes. The total contribution of 
heredity has not yet been clearly made out. Recent stud- 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 237 

ies indicate that insanity, epilepsy, and kindred defects are 
hereditary, and that they predispose to delinquency. Other 
hereditary physical defects, especially neuropathic condi- 
tions, results of serious alcoholism of parents, hypersexual 
tendencies, unfortunate temperaments, and perhaps others 
are also by many held to be factors which complicate the 
problem of moral evolution and complete socialization (31, 
p. 201). Eugenics has no more important problem than 
that of tracing this relationship more definitely. 

Environmental causes. The environmental causes are 
so numerous and so interrelated that we shall be unable 
to do more than note the bearing of a few of the more im- 
portant ones. Such vivid pictures as those given us in 
the West Side Studies (23), and those of Breckenridge and 
Abbott (7), are almost convincing enough to bring the con- 
viction that the chief cause of delinquency is, as Mrs. 
Schoff (49), Travis (64), and many others have maintained, 
the defective homes from which children come, except that 
one is driven to inquire why there are so many defective 
homes. When such inquiry is made, other important 
causes come to light. Bonger (6), who reviews all the im- 
portant literature on crime and presents no end of statis- 
tical material bearing on all phases of the subject, makes a 
strong case for his contention that "economic conditions 
occupy a much more important place in the etiology of 
crime than most authors have given them " (p. 667), and 
that " the part played by economic conditions in criminal- 
ity is preponderant, even decisive " (p. 669). Poverty and 
lack of employment, inadequate pay, and unfavorable con- 
ditions under which work is done, all tend to create unfit 
home conditions. Economic stress leads to child labor 
with its attendant evils, which predispose to delinquency. 
Clopper (11, p. 137) quotes from the Report on the Condi- 
tion of Woman and, Child Wage- Earners in the United States, 



238 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

authorized by Congress in 1907, to show that in seven of 
our largest Eastern cities child workers committed, in 1907^ 
08, more than sixty-two per cent of all offenses of children 
between six and sixteen years of age. The report adds: 
'* When it is remembered that a majority, presumably a 
large majority, of all children between these ages are not 
working, this preponderance of offenses among the workers 
assumes impressive proportions " (p. 160). Bonger (6, 
p. 408) presents statistics from the Netherlands, extending 
over a period of six years, which show that " among the 
young delinquents there are two or three times as many 
persons following a trade as among non-delinquents. " The 
percentage of sentenced children who practiced trades 
ranged from a little less than forty-six to more than fifty- 
one per cent of all the delinquents. This is a most striking 
commentary on the effect of child labor upon delinquency. 
The Chief Constable of Edinburgh, Scotland, is credited 
with the statement that " two thirds of the children pass- 
ing through the courts during the last thirty years have 
been associated with street trading " (4, p. 13). It is uni- 
versally agreed that among the trades the street trades 
are most productive of delinquency among boys, approxi- 
mately sixty per cent of the working delinquents being 
engaged in such trades (11, p. 137). Of these, newsboys 
form by far the largest proportion. Nearing (11, p. 135) 
says: "Whatever the cause, the effect on the newsboy is 
always the same. He lives on the streets at night in an 
atmosphere of crime and criminals, and he takes in vice and 
evil with the air he breathes. . . . The professional news- 
boy is the embryo criminal." There are many causes for the 
relation between child labor and delinquency which can- 
not be dwelt upon here. By no means least important is 
the premature contact with the evil associations and the 
temptations of the street, factory, and workshop, with loss 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 239 

of the restraints of home and home training so much needed 
in formative years. The early assumption of responsibili- 
ties unsuited to young shoulders is also very detrimentaL 
All the many careful studies point in one direction — phys- 
ical, economic, and moral deterioration are, if not inevi- 
table, at least, the common result. 

Jane Addams (1) has shown clearly, out of her rich ex- 
perience, how the factory system dominates many quar- 
ters of the city; how it has outrun all educational and social 
arrangements; how ofttimes the spirit of youth stands it 
patiently for a time, and then suddenly breaks violently 
away from its monotony and restraint, its soul-repressing 
and soul-destroying power. At this point the youth either 
throws up his job, vowing never to enter the factory again, 
or he changes from occupation to occupation for novelty's 
sake, mastering nothing, and sinking rather than rising in 
the scale. Under such conditions occasions favorable to 
delinquency are multiplied many-fold, and often the de- 
linquency results from sheer desperation, in " quest for 
adventure " of a legitimate sort for relief from the over- 
stress of industry. The unsuitability of child labor as usu- 
ally conducted should be clear from our earlier discussion 
of the need for and values of play, especially in the light of 
Patrick's theory. 

On the other hand, the old proverb that " idleness is the 
mother of all vices " finds much confirmation. The period 
of greatest frequency of juvenile delinquency corresponds 
closely with the age at which the majority leave school and 
either remain wholly idle, or for several years work at odd 
jobs or go from job to job, with much idle time on their 
hands. No other cause has been more strongly stressed. 
After thirty years of experience, Mr. Andrew Drew, of the 
" Industrial Committee of the London School Board," says, 
" truancy is to be credited with nearly the whole of our 



340 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

juvenile criminality." This statement is, of course, entirely 
too strong, but many others have been driven by obser- 
vation to the view that truancy is in many cases the first 
step in juvenile delinquency. Morrison (44) is not far wrong 
when he says, *' a disposition to evade parental and scho- 
lastic authority, showing itself in vagrant habits, may be 
considered as being in many cases the initial step toward 
the complete evolution of an anti-social life." So close is 
the relationship that truancy, vagrancy, and even idleness 
are, under some of our juvenile laws, themselves delin- 
quencies. The truant impulse and that to commit delin- 
quencies of a more serious sort both have their roots in the 
same instincts. Opposition to child labor does not require 
that one advocate the rearing of children in idleness. Noth- 
ing is more detrimental than total freedom from respon- 
sibility during childhood. Suitable employment at school 
and at home, or even outside of either, may be something 
quite different from child labor as commonly understood. 
Suitable summer courses in the public schools located 
among the laboring classes of Los Angeles have had a def- 
inite and measurable effect in keeping down the usual 
increase of delinquency during vacation periods, according 
to the testimony of both school and court officials. Suc- 
cessful efforts in securing suitable positions for pupils has 
been of further help in the same direction. All schools could 
perform an important service by keeping in touch with 
their pupils after they go to work and rendering them such 
aid as the vocational guide is now beginning to offer. 

The gang. Jacob Riis in several of his books, Goldmark 
(23), Puffer (47), and many others have presented convinc- 
ing proof that the boy's gang is a fruitful source of delin- 
quent tendencies. The gangs of both the East and West 
Sides in New York have been the terror of citizen and po- 
liceman alike, committing many depredations, a majority 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 241 

of which go unpunished. With the backing of his gang 
many a boy commits anti-social acts he would not think 
of attempting alone. Much as the pack reinforces the cour- 
age of the wolf, the gang does that of the boy. In spite of 
Puffer's well-established contention that the gang may 
have more virtues than vices, a bad environment furnish- 
ing little or no legitimate outlet for its energies makes it 
a potential power for evil. Puffer himself (p. 40) found 
seventy-four per cent of his sixty-six gangs had engaged in 
predatory activities. The relation of these activities to 
racial instincts seems clear in his statement that " prob- 
ably nine-tenths of the objects stolen by youths before the 
age of sixteen are things to eat " (p. 105). Some juvenile 
judges aim to remove the delinquent from the influence of 
his gang or to break it up as the first step in reformation. 
Judge Lindsey is a notable exception in that he works with 
and through the gang for its reformation. His notable suc- 
cesses commend his theory, though it seems doubtful if 
many could successfully follow his example. 

The responsibility of society for delinquency cannot be 
easily overrated. Again and again it has been shown that 
children whose delinquencies were of the mildest sort, and 
even those innocent of wrong, have been confirmed in de- 
linquency by the unwise, ignorant, even criminal treat- 
ment they have received at the hands of the law. Many 
a boy, before the day of the juvenile court laws, has re- 
ceived his initiation into a criminal career from real crimi- 
nals with whom he was forced to associate in jail, reform 
school, or prison. Judge Lindsey and other pioneers for the 
Juvenile Court made much of their appeal to public in- 
terest and public conscience by merely relating actual 
instances of such cases. The epigrammatic statement of 
Lacassagne, that " societies have only the criminals they 
deserve " (10, p. 358), has much truth in it. Tarde, in his 



U% CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

extensive studies of imitation and suggestion, has als<i 
given much substantiation to the view that crime is " pre- 
eminently a social phenomenon." If environment were 
always at its best, virtue would be quite as common, yes 
much more common, than delinquency is in a bad environ- 
ment. As Bonger (6, p. 535) puts it: " He who is born with 
weak social instincts runs more danger of becoming a crimi- 
nal. But the certainty that he will become such does not 
exist — that depends upon the environment." 

Physical defects and delinquency. Many attempts have 
recently been made to show a close correlation between 
physical defectiveness and delinquency. Numerous cases 
have been cited in the literature in which the relief, afforded 
by dental and surgical aid, from nervous tension due to 
impacted teeth, eye-strain, or pressure on brain tissue, or 
the improved physical health and growth due to the 
removal of diseased adenoids or tonsils and the like, has 
worked a moral transformation in the patient. It is not 
denied by any one that both defects causing weakness 
and those causing irritation are factors in the causation of 
delinquency, but there has been a tendency to overesti- 
mate their significance. As we point out elsewhere, physi- 
cal anomalies are unusually common with mental defectives, 
but for the rest there is much support from recent statisti- 
cal studies for the view of Goring (31, p. 370), that " the 
physical and mental constitution of both criminal and law- 
abiding persons of the same age, stature, class, and intelli- 
gence are identical." Healy (31, p. £16) found defective 
vision a major factor in ten per cent of his cases, defects 
of hearing unimportant, of teeth unestablished, of the nose 
and throat a probable factor, but one that has been much 
exaggerated. Defects of nutrition, of the nervous system, 
and other minor physical irritations he also finds to have 
some slight causative effect. Ee finds syphilitic infection, 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 



243 



which is exceedingly prevalent with immoral girls and 
women, an important cause. It leads to paresis, and that 
predisposes to crime. Perhaps no physical condition may 
be considered more important than under-nourishment, 
although it is difficult to separate, as Healy (31) has shown, 
from the other effects of poverty, alcoholism, etc. Oppen- 
heim long ago stressed the factor of nutrition as a safe- 
guard against physical and moral arrest. School health 
work everywhere has made it clear that malnutrition, if 
not the major cause of physical defectiveness and physio- 
logical retardation, is at least one of the major causes of 
these conditions, both of which are measurably unfavorable 
to moral development. 
Age and crime. Visitation of courts where offenders of 



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Figure 11. Relation of Age and Crime 

Prom Hall's Educational Problems, by permission of D. Appleton and 
Company, New York. 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 



all classes and ages are tried and convicted, of penal and 
corrective institutions, and the study of criminal statistics, 
always leaves the investigator with a strong sense of the 
youthfulness of the offenders. Crime and delinquency not 
only begin in childhood and youth in almost all cases, 
but reach their two culminating points, one in the middle 
'teens, the other before the prime of life, usually between 
twenty and thirty. Few are found in the latter group who 

were not earlier in 
the other. "Cady, 
averaging all the 
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delinquent boy is 
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p. 333), from the 
Census of 1890, 
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occurred at sixteen 
years. Marro's 
statistical table, 
quoted in the same 
connection, shows the age of fourteen to be that at which 
Italian teachers note the greatest number of faults in 
children. Sheldon (52) found predatory societies most nu- 
merous among boys between ten and fifteen years. Mrs. 
Schoff (49) found that more than half of the ten thousand 
cases brought into court in Philadelphia in eight years were 



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at Different Ages 

(After Marro.) From Hall's Adolescence, vol. 1, by permis- 
sion of D. Appleton and Company, New York. 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 245 

between thirteen and sixteen years of age. The report, for 
1915, of the Juvenile Court of Los Angeles County, Cali- 
fornia, one of the largest in the entire country, shows a 
steady increase in the number of boy delinquents up to 
seventeen years, with a sudden and very marked decline 
thereafter to twenty-one, where the jurisdiction of the court 
ceases. Many more statistics could be quoted to show the 
youthfulness of offenders and the early age of first of- 
fenses, but those cited are typical. 

When to the fact of youthfulness of offenders is added 
the now generally recognized fact that physiological and 
mental maturity, much more than real age, determine the 
capacity for moral accountability, the problems of delin- 
quency and crime become clearly those of promoting the 
moral evolution of childhood and adolescence. At best the 
problem is difficult enough. With complications incident 
to structural and functional retardation or arrest of devel- 
opment either physical or mental, the difficulties are dis- 
proportionately increased. There seem to be few cases in 
which the problem of crime is not a problem of childhood 
and youth. To know the criminal one must know him as 
a child. If crime and delinquency are ever to be materially 
decreased the remedy is surely to be sought along the line 
of better methods for the formation of character in early 
life, rather than in the reformation of delinquents and 
criminals, important as the latter service is. We must learn 
that formation is better than reformation; that preven- 
tion is better than cure; that the problem of crime is in 
the main an educational one. 

Nature of juvenile offenses. The nature of offenses 
varies in a rather definite and uniform way with age and 
sex, and to a minor degree with season, climate, race, stage 
of civilization, and many other factors. Age affects the 
nature of offenses because in earlier years the physical 



246 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

strength and mental capacity necessary for certain offenses 
are lacking; because the nature of the life of children and 
adults subjects each to different temptations, but perhaps 
chiefly because the impulses and instincts which are a 
prime factor in causation differ radically with age. Sex 
differences are apparently due in part to deep-seated phys- 
ical and mental disparities between the sexes, but also in 
part to social factors. Individual temperaments, traits, 
and capacities, whatever their cause, often show them- 
selves in such characteristic fashion as almost to serve the 
purpose of identification of the offender. Truancy, vagrancy, 
and sexual offences are most frequent in the Spring. With 
some of the other factors the relationship is more obscure, 
but the essential fact remains — all have more or less effect 
upon the nature of delinquencies. 

The typical offense of boys is some form of theft. Fer- 
riani observes that " the child making his first criminal 
steps begins ninety times out of a hundred with theft "; 
and so natural does this writer regard this offense that he 
adds that, "from eight to fourteen years the child is al- 
most always a thief " (10, p. 372). The most prevalent 
offense of girls is incorrigibility, usually involving immo- 
rality. According to Breckenridge and Abbott (7, p. 314), 
eighty per cent of the 2440 girls appearing before the 
Chicago Juvenile Court, in the first ten years of its work, 
were brought in for immorality. Hall (25, vol. 1, p. 333) 
constructs a table from the Census of 1890, showing the 
distribution of all offenses for those of both sexes who were 
committed to juvenile reformatories between the ages of 
seven and twenty-one years. The order of greatest fre- 
quency is incorrigibility, petit larceny, vagrancy, larceny, 
burglary, truancy, disorderly conduct, assaults, etc. Tru- 
ancy culminates at thirteen; incorrigibility and malicious 
mischief at fourteen; petit larceny, vagrancy, disorderly 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Wi 

conduct, and assaults at fifteen; larceny and burglary at 
sixteen years. Crimes against persons reach their culmina- 
tion several years later than those against property. 

Peculiar or special circumstances or local conditions also 
affect the nature of delinquency to some extent. To cite 
a single example, the records show that during the year 
1915 the great majority of seventeen-year-old boys brought 
into the Juvenile Court of Los Angeles County, California, 
were charged with " speeding and violations of traffic laws." 
Not only is this offense the most common one by far for 
this age, but it is so common as to make seventeen the age 
of the greatest number of offenses for the year. 

The typical delinquent. Gathering together all we know 
about juvenile delinquents, let us form a composite word 
picture of the type. As he appears in our juvenile courts 
the country over, the typical delinquent is a boy (eight or 
nine times out of ten) ; he is approximately fifteen years old; 
is slightly under the normal height and weight for his age; 
may have one or more physical defects of a fairly serious 
sort, but is probably not more seriously defective than the 
average public school child (nine times out of ten); his 
schooling has been more or less interfered with by various 
causes; his intelligence is normal (three times out of four), 
although he may be a dull-normal or border-land case; he 
has been and probably still is engaged in some one of the 
street trades or other occupation for gain; he does not care 
much for school, and will quit as soon as the law allows, if 
he has not already done so; he is a member of a gang; 
is native-born of native-born parents; his home ranks 
somewhere between the very poor and that of the comfort- 
able working class; the chances are even that one parent 
is dead, has deserted, or that the parents have separated, 
and that one parent is addicted to drink; if there are sev- 
eral other children in the family, he has one brother or sis- 



248 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

ter who is delinquent; the charge against him includes some 
sort of theft, and he has been guilty of more than one 
offense; his condition is due one fourth to family inherit- 
ance, and three fourths to environmental causes of which 
the influence of his gang is an important element; if he is 
to be reclaimed, he will either have to be removed from his 
present surroundings, or a radical change will have to be 
made in them, and he be held to the course of rectitude by 
some strong hand until correct habits and ideals are well 
established; of such reclamation in his case there are nine 
chances in ten of success. It hardly needs be said that this 
picture is not to be taken too literally, but every statement 
in it has statistical backing, and it is not far from true of 
the average delinquent who appears in court. There are 
extremes at both ends of the curve of distribution whose 
portrait would, of course, be quite different, but the vast 
number of the type described present a challenge to par- 
ents, teachers, and social reformers. 

Remedies for delinquency. Without in the least minimiz- 
ing the difficulty of the task, the facts of moral develop- 
ment clearly suggest many feasible means of preventing 
delinquency. The major problem is one of moral training 
and education. The only hope of stemming the increasing 
tide of youthful delinquency lies in a better understand- 
ing of the contributory causes, and a prompt and contin- 
ued attack at the roots of the evil. The rapid extension of 
our knowledge of child nature and the factors which enter 
into character formation, and the widest possible dissemi- 
nation of such knowledge as we have, is therefore the first 
important step. Social and economic conditions in gen- 
eral must be improved as much and as fast as possible. 
There must be education for parenthood and home making, 
and the means with which to make and maintain proper 
homes must be more easily available than now. Cities, 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 249 

towns, and villages must be built with some consideration 
of the fact that they are to be the dwelling-place of chil- 
dren, as well as places for the conduct of business and in- 
dustry and the carrying-on of a life suitable to adults. Facili- 
ties for healthful and proper play and recreation, and for 
the legitimate exercise of all desirable youthful instincts, 
must be everywhere a prime consideration. Not merely 
must there be places for play, but there must be organiza- 
tion and direction of play to further moral ends. Organi- 
zations for the cultivation and safeguarding of the normal 
and legitimate social instincts — public playgrounds, boys' 
clubs, girls' clubs, Boy Scouts, Camp-Fire Girls, athletic 
teams, and the like — are present-day movements with 
large possibilities for moral training. There is vast room 
for improvement and perfecting of the methods and means 
of moral training in homes, churches, and schools. Public 
libraries, museums, the theater, the motion picture, night 
and continuation schools, and the like, have vast unused 
opportunities to further the making of a superior citizenry. 

When all these agencies have done their work, there will 
still remain task enough for the modernized and improved 
juvenile courts, parental schools, industrial and reforma- 
tory institutions, homes for epileptics and feeble-minded, 
with their trained judges, probation officers, psychologists, 
vocational teachers, and vocational guides to take care of 
those who will still fail to respond to the formative influ- 
ences already mentioned. Constructive and preventive 
work is the ideal, but corrective work will always have a 
place. A long step in advance will have been taken when 
we learn to recognize early and to segregate the feeble- 
minded, epileptic, and otherwise exceptional children for 
special treatment suited to their condition. 

Looking to the future, eugenics must be called to our 
aid in the elimination of unfit parentage. By education and 



250 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

by legislation we must see that fewer physically and men- 
tally defective, diseased, and otherwise handicapped chil- 
dren are born, for many of these classes are almost certain 
to end as criminals, in spite of the best of care and training. 
Positively we must see that all children are better born. 
None of the suggestions we here present are Utopian or 
visionary. We have suggested no movement, organization, 
agency, method, or ideal that has not already been used 
effectively somewhere by somebody. For the furtherance 
of many of the ideals involved in these suggestions a large 
measure of the responsibility rests with the school. Most 
of them will be realized largely by education of the social 
conscience, which is already more alive to the best interests 
of childhood than ever before in the history of this or any 
coimtry. 

Summary 

1. Our conceptions of juvenile delinquency have under- 
gone entire reconstruction since the beginning of the 
twentieth century. 

2. The causation of juvenile delinquency is very com- 
plex; there is no one cause. 

3. One should be very careful neither to over-emphasize 
the effect of heredity on the one hand, nor that of 
environment on the other. 

4. Neglect, orphanage, education in crime, confinement 
with criminals, suggestion, ignorance, perverted in- 
stincts, etc., cause much delinquency which is clearly 
preventable. 

5. Improper, inefficient, ill-timed methods of moral edu- 
cation and training, especially the divorcing of moral 
from intellectual training, are responsible for most 
of the moral turpitude of a less serious sort than that 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 251 

which brings children into juvenile courts and refor- 
matory and penal institutions. 

6. The large percentage of successful reformations 
(eighty per cent or more in many well-conducted re- 
formatories) indicates the extent to which improved 
methods of training and education may meet the 
problem. 

7. Remediable social and economic injustices and in- 
equalities, poverty, bad housing, unemployment, lack 
of vocational training, etc., are larger factors than are 
commonly admitted. 

8. The conclusion that delinquency is about one third 
a eugenic and two thirds a euthenic problem seems 
warranted by the facts. 

9. In a broad way it may be truthfully stated that society 
has now the information and the means at its disposal 
to eliminate, in a generation or two, at least three 
fourths of the delinquency it now permits. 

10. The laissez-faire attitude of society will be chiefly 
to blame if delinquency is not so reduced in the near 
future. 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Why has our conception of juvenile faults, immoralities, and crimes 
undergone such a radical transformation in recent years? 

2. Are you convinced that there is no one all-important cause of juvenile 
delinquency? Why or why not? 

3. Explain and illustrate the relation of instincts to delinquency. 

4. Explain why feeble-mindedness predisposes to delinquency. 

5. Explain why the nature of offenses against law and morality vary with 
age and sex. 

6. Gather all the facts possible about some delinquent child in your 
community. Try to diagnose the case, prescribe a remedy, and predict 
the outcome. Healy's (31) type cases will be suggestive. 

1. Study carefully the home, industrial, educational, social, and recrea- 
tional conditions of your community, and explain why your commii' 
nity has less (or more) delinquency than the average. 



252 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

8. Observe as closely as possible the activities of some boys' gang in 
your community, and list its good and bad effects in so far as you can 
determine them. 

9. Would you break up all boys' gangs or not? Why? 

10. What constructive measures does the known relation of feeble-minded- 
ness to delinquency suggest? 

11. State specifically and in some detail the part the school must take in 
the prevention of delinquency. 

12. What are the essential qualifications of a juvenile judge? Of a proba- 
tion officer? Of a juvenile police officer? 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

*1. Addams,Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. (1909.) 162 pp. 
*2./ Addams, Jane. A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. (1912.) 
219 pp. 

3. Adler, F. Moral Instruction of Children. (1892.) 278 pp. Especially 

chap, v and Appendix. 

4. Barnett, Mary G. Young Delinquents : A Study of Reformatory and 

Industrial Schools (In Great Britain). (1913.) 222 pp. 

5. Bohannon, E. W. "A Study of Peculiar and Exceptional Children"; 

in Ped. Sera., vol. 4, pp. 3-60. 

6. Bonger, W. A. Criminality and Economic Conditions. (1916.) 706 pp. 
*7. Breckenridge, S. P., and Abbott, E. The Delinquent Child and the 

Home. (1912.) 360 pp. 

8. Burk, F. "Teasing and Bullying"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 4, pp. 336-71. 

9. Burk, Mrs. C. F. " The Collecting Instinct"; in Ped. Sem., 1900, vol. 

7, pp. 179-207. (See also. Hall, Aspects of Child Life and Education, 
pp. 205-39.) 
*10. Chamberlain, A. F. The Child (1914), pp. 355-95. 

11. Clopper, E. N. Child Labor in the City Streets. (1913.) 280 pp. 

12. Coulter, E. K. Children in the Shadow. (1913.) 277 pp. 

13. Conn, H. W. Social Heredity and Social Evolution (1914), pp. 72-125. 

14. Crafts, L. W. "Bibliography of Feeble-mindedness in Relation to 

Juvenile Delinquency"; in Jour, of Delinquency, vol. 1, pp. 195-208. 

15. Darrah, Miss E. M. " Children's Attitude Toward Law"; in Barnes's 

Studies in Education, vol. 1, pp. 213-16, and 254-58. 

16. Davenport, C. B. "Nomadism, or the Wandering Impulse, with 

Special Reference to Heredity"; in The Feebly Inhibited, pt. I, pp. 
1-26 (1915.) 158 pp. 

17. Dawson, G. "Psychic Rudiments and Morality"; in Am. Jour, of 

Psy., vol. 11, pp. 181-224. 

18. Dewey, John. Moral Principles in Education. (1909.) 61 pp. 

19. Drummond, W. B. An Introduction to Child Study (1908), pp. 281- 

97. 



JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 253 

20. Fernald, Grace M. "Report of the Psychological Work at the Cali- 

fornia School for Girls"; in Jour, of Delinquency, vol. 1, pp. 22-32. 

21. Goddard, H. H. Feeble-mindedness : Its Causes and Consequences. 

(1914.) 599 pp. 
*22. Goddard, H. H. The Criminal Imbecile. (1915.) 157 pp. 
*23. Goldmark, Pauline, and True, Ruth S. Boyhood and Lawlessness, and 

The Neglected Girl. (1914.) 204 pp. and 148 pp. 

24. Gunckel, J. E. Boyville. (1905.) 219 pp. 

25. Hall, G. S. Adolescence. (1904.) 2 vols. 589 pp. and 784 pp. 

26. Hall, G. S. Youth : Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene. Chaps, vn, 

ix, and xii. (1904.) 379 pp. 

27. Hall, G. S. "Children's Lies"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 1, pp. 211-18. (See 

also his Educational Problems (1911), vol. 1, chap, vi, pp. 345-87.) 
*28. Hall, G. S. Educational Problems (1911), vol. 1, chap, v, pp. 200-344. 

29. Hall, G. S., and Smith, T. L. "Curiosity and Interest"; in Ped. Sem., 

1903, vol. 10, pp. 315-58. (See also Aspects of Child Life and 
Education, pp. 84-141.) 

30. Hart, H. H. The Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children. (1910.) 

430 pp. 
*S1. Healy, W. The Individual Delinquent. (1915.) 830 pp. (Exhaustive 
bibliography.) 

32. Healy, W. Pathological Lying, Accusation and Swindling. (1915.) 

286 pp. 

33. Johnson, J. "Rudimentary Society among Boys"; in Johns Hopkins 

Univ. Studies in Hist, and Pol. Sci., vol. 2, pp. 495-546. 

34. Jung, C. G. "The Association Method"; in Lectures and Add. on 

Psy. and Ped., Twentieth Anniversary of Clark Univ., pp. 38-89. 

35. King, 1. The Psychology of Child Development (1903), chap, xi, pp. 

132-52. 
38. Kline, L. W. "Truancy as Related to the Migratory Instinct"; 
in Ped. Sem., vol. 5, pp. 381-420. 

37. Kline, L. W., and France, C. J. "The Psychology of Ownership"; 

in Ped. Sem. (1899), vol. 6, pp. 421-70. (Also in Aspects of Child 
Life and Education, pp. 241-86.) 

38. Kneeland, G. J. Commercialized Prostitution in New York City. 

(1913.) 334 pp. 

39. Kohs, S. C. "Economic Conditions and Juvenile Delinquency"; in 

Jour, of Delinquency, vol. 1, pp. 118-24. 

40. Le Bon, G. The Crowd (2d ed., 1897), pp. 15-44. 

41. Mangold, G. B. Problems of Child Welfare (1914), pt. v, pp. 345-418. 

(Bibliography, pp. 506-08.) 

42. Merrill, L. Winning the Boy. (1908.) Especially pp. 129-260. 

43. Monroe, W. S. "The Money Sense of Children"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 

6, pp. 152-58. 

44. Morrison, W. D. Juvenile Offenders. (1900.) 317 pp. 



254 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

44a. Ordahl, Louise E., and George. "A Study of 49 Female Convicts "; 
in Jour, of Delinquency, vol. 2, pp. 331-51. 

45. Partridge, G. E. Genetic Philosophy of Education (1913), chaps, xi 

and xn, pp. 167-91. (G. Stanley Hall's views on moral and religious 
education.) 

46. Partridge, G. E. "Studies in the Psychology of Alcohol"; in Am. 

Jour. Psy., vol. 11, pp. 318-76. 
*47. Puffer, J. A. The Boy and his Gang. (1912.) 188 pp. 

48. Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives. (1890.) 304 pp. (Other books 

also.) 

49. Schoff, Mrs. H. K. The Wayward Child. (1915.) 274 pp. 

50. Sears, C. H. "Home and School Punishments"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 6, 

pp. 159-87. 

51. Schallenberger, Miss M. " Children's Rights as Seen by Themselves "; 

in Ped. Sem., vol. 3, pp. 87-96. 

52. Shelden, H. D. "Institutional Activities of American Children"; in 

Am. Jour, of Psy., vol. 9, pp. 425-48. 

53. Sisson, Miss G. "Who has the Best Right?"; in Barnes's Studies in 

Education, vol. 1, pp. 259-63. 

54. Smith, Miss T. L. "Obstinacy and Obedience"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 

12, pp. 27-54. 

55. Street, I. R. Studies in Moral Education; in Ped. Sem., vol. 4, pp. 

5-40. 

56. Sully, J. Studies in Childhood (1895), pp. 126-32 and 228-97. 

57. Swift, E. J. Mind in the Making (1898), pp. 33-95. 

58. Swift, E. J. Youth and the Race. (1912.) 342 pp. 

59. Tanner, Miss A. The Child (1915), chaps, x and xn, pp. 261-312. 

(Bibliography.) 

60. Terman, L. M., and Williams, J. H. "Preliminary Report of the 

Psychological Survey of Whittier State School"; in Biennial 
Report (1914), pp. 5-47. 

61. Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. (1916.) 362 pp. 

62. Thorndike, E. L. Notes on Child Study (1901), chap, xvi, pp. 119-27. 

63. Tracy, F. The Psychology of Childhood (1909), pp. 179-92. 

64. Travis, T. The Young Malefactor. (1908.) 243 pp. 

65. Triplett, N. " A Study of the Faults of Children"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 

10, pp. 200-38. 

66. Williams, J. H. "Hereditary Nomadism and Delinquency"; in Jour. 

of Delinquency, vol. 1, pp. 209-30. 

67. Westermark, E. The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas (1906). 

Vol. 1, 716 pp. 

68. Woods, F. A. Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty. (1906.) 312 pp 



CHAPTER XI 

GENERAL MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 
I. General Facts and Principles 

The problems. A complete genetic account of child mind 
and consciousness is as yet far from possible. We must 
content ourselves, here, with the briefest sort of outline 
of the most important facts and theories bearing on a few 
of the significant phases of the subject. When we begin 
to consider what we should like to know about the general 
development of mind, a good many questions come at 
once to mind. What is the nature of mind? When does 
consciousness begin? WTiat kind of consciousness is it in 
its early stages? What are the major changes that take 
place in it with age? How does mental development pro- 
ceed? By what means is mental development hastened or 
hindered? In how far is the nature and course of develop- 
ment predetermined by innate, and in how far by external 
or environmental, factors. What laws govern the growth 
of mind? How does the nature and content of child mind 
differ from that of the adult? How and why do the minds 
of individual children differ among themselves? 

We have already given partial answers to some of these 
questions in the course of our discussion of certain aspects 
of child behavior. The reader has already been made famil- 
iar with the method by which such problems are being 
attacked. We need hardly say that the nature of some of 
them is such that no complete answer is possible at pres- 
ent. Experimental solution of some of them is extremely 
difficult, if not impossible, and for the solution of still others 
much more time and effort is yet required. A glance 



256 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

through the literature of this phase of our subject will 
readily convince any one of the fragmentary nature of our 
knowledge and the danger incident to attempts to general- 
ize. These difficulties doubtless account for the very lim- 
ited number of chapters to be found in the literature on 
the topic as we attempt to treat it here. 

The nature of mind. The new physiological psychology 
of the generation just passing has sought to find for every 
mental state or process a correlative change in the neuro- 
physical mechanism. Its belief in such correlation has been 
crystallized into the expression, no psychosis without neu- 
rosis. This expression states the psychologist's belief in 
the most intimate relation between mind and body. The 
thoroughgoing geneticist goes a step farther. Applying 
Darwin's great idea, it becomes a fundamental principle of 
genetic psychology that the mind, like the body, is a bio- 
logical product which has developed with the body in the 
race, and therefore develops with the body in the individ- 
ual. 1 Such a view implies not only continuous change, 
but makes mind vastly larger and more complex than con- 
sciousness, which, at best, is only an infinitesimal fraction 
of mind temporarily passing in review, as it were, before 
the subject. Mind in its broader aspect is constituted of 
the sum total of all mental processes, past and present. Not 
only so, but for a true understanding of any individual 
mind we need a complete natural history of the physical 
and mental development of the race as well as of the indi- 
vidual. It is, perhaps, needless to say that such a concep- 
tion presents an aim, a method of attack, and a point of 
view, rather than an attainable ideal. Its fruitfulness must 
be the measure of its true worth. 

1 On the topics discussed in this and the next sections the student should 
read the brief resume of the views of G. Stanley Hall to be found in Par- 
tridge (32, pp. 14-87), or for fuller discussion the references listed in his 
bibliographies (pp. 31, 58, and 71). 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 257 

We have reason to expect that if mind is the product of 
countless ages of continuous development, much of its 
deeper content must lie below the threshold of conscious- 
ness and can, therefore, not be satisfactorily studied or 
understood by the method of introspection any more than 
the evolution of the physical body can be completely made 
out by the dissection of its adult form. The problem pre- 
sents further difficulty by reason of the fact that the human 
mind, especially that of the child, is never static, fixed, 
complete, or entirely intelligible to itself. It is never twice 
the same in any two persons, nor ever exactly the same for 
any individual at different times. Again, it is never what 
it is at any time solely as a result of individual experience, 
but carries in its every aspect the marks of its racial origin. 
The peculiar difficulty of understanding mind fully lies 
chiefly in the fact that its most fundamental and significant 
traits, its highest capacities, its strongest impulses are 
fundamentally conditioned by the emotions, and the in- 
stincts, which are exceedingly elusive and recalcitrant to 
introspection and are not analyzed by consciousness. 

Origin of mind. Let us admit at the beginning that the 
problem of the origin of mind in either the race or the indi- 
vidual is a purely hypothetical one, which can probably 
never be scientifically solved with entire satisfaction. The 
problem is one of greater philosophical than it is of prac- 
tical concern. We shall not stop to argue the question nor 
discuss in detail the probability of mind being coexistent 
or synonymous with life itself, or whether it is something 
added at some particular stage of development. Our study 
of non-learned behavior should have made it clear that 
chemo-physical responses (tropisms) seem to have long 
preceded sentiency, awareness, and certainly sense-per- 
ception or cognition in the human sense, as we know them. 
There is general agreement among biologists and psycholo- 



258 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

gists that the simplest conscious processes are probably 
found in the animal series when a nervous system is present. 
There is equally general agreement that in the lowest forms 
the higher mental processes characteristic of the human 
mind are certainly absent. There is a vast amount of evi- 
dence from both phylogeny and ontogeny to indicate an 
ascending series of developments from mere sentiency to 
the highest reasoning of the human intellect. There is 
little reason to doubt that all minds have had a similar 
origin, a common function and, so far as each has gone, a 
somewhat analogous development. 

The statement that " all consciousness is motor " has 
become an axiom in psychology. There is implied in this 
statement the conception that mind and consciousness have 
their origin in or in relation to the movements made by 
an organism in response to its environment. Stated axio- 
matically, in slightly different form, it might be said that 
where there has been no movement there is no mind. The 
most careful study of mind in all its various stages and de- 
grees of complexity reveals no distinct and separate or self- 
sufficient entity. Mind is one aspect of a unitary life process. 
It has its place, its function, its part to play in relation to 
and not apart from the body. In its simplest form, that 
part seems clearly to be some sort of mediation of the uni- 
versal process of reception of stimuli, their recognition and 
motor responses to them. The only essential differences 
between the simplest and the most highly complex mental 
processes are differences of degree. As the whole complex 
neural structure is built upon the same general plan as the 
neurone — a mechanism for receiving and responding to 
stimuli — so the whole mental structure is constituted 
of a parallel series of processes, differing in complexity 
with the nature of the response which it mediates or accom- 
panies. 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 259 

It has been one of the greatest contributions of genetic 
psychology that it has proven the exceedingly intricate 
relation between motor and mental activity and develop- 
ment. In the lower forms of consciousness this relation- 
ship is more immediate, definite, and most easily under- 
stood, but there is no discoverable break anywhere by 
means of which we can distinguish in function the conscious- 
ness involved in immediate motor response to a simple 
sensory stimulus from that involved in a highly complex 
series of reasoning processes. It seems to be the very es- 
sence of mental function that it bear direct relationship to 
the world of influences external to itself, tending to respond 
to that which acts upon it by cognitive (knowing), affec- 
tive (feeling), and conative (striving) processes. Mind had 
its origin in movement; its function is still and always the 
modification or direction of responses; its development can 
take place only in definite, vital, dynamic situations in 
which its natural function has free play. 

It is much beyond our present purpose to discuss in de- 
tail the steps in the elaboration of mental functions through- 
out the ascending scale of animal life, or even in the human 
family. While it is unsafe to follow closely an analogy 
based upon physical evolution, since mind is something 
entirely different in its nature, still such an analogy is use- 
ful in indicating the lines upon which such a discussion 
would proceed. We can only say that the striking changes 
in physical evolution are no more interesting and illuminat- 
ing than those in mental evolution. We must content our- 
selves with an attempt to give some rough idea of the main 
tendencies of development of the mind of the individual 
human being. 

When does consciousness begin? The interest in this 
question has been from the first chiefly a philosophical one. 
Practically it is very much more important to know what 



260 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

kind of consciousness the infant has, when it has begun, 
how it develops, and how its development may be directed. 
Much of the early study of infant consciousness, however, 
aimed at an answer to this question, and a brief r6sum6 
of conclusions has at least theoretical value. There is not 
time to enter into detailed discussion of the ancient dis- 
pute over the question of innate ideas. We can only state, 
somewhat dogmatically, at the same time disclaiming any 
desire to be dogmatic, that we do not here accept the ex- 
treme tabula rasa conception of mind. We have already 
indicated our conviction that consciousness, and especially 
mind in its broader sense, is conditioned by the selected 
physical and mental qualities of the race. This, however, 
does not bind us to a belief in the presence of ideas prior to 
»ensory experience. Philosophy, observation, and experiment 
alike unite in indicating that mind is partly predetermined 
and partly determined by individual experience. It is in- 
conceivable, say the geneticists, that the endless process of 
time through which body and mind have evolved together 
in the race should not have selected and indelibly stamped 
upon each the effects of their innumerable, intricate rela- 
tionships and interdependencies. All the fundamental 
instinctive motor tendencies of man have definite corre- 
lates in affective and cognitive processes. One is born with 
the general pattern of his mental life already definitely laid 
out. One is born with well-defined capacities to experience 
sensations, to form ideas, to have images, to retain them 
in memory, to associate, to attend, to judge, to analyze 
and synthesize ideas, and to have affective experiences all 
of a distinctively human type. No normal human being is 
ever predisposed to live the mental life of a dog or of an 
ape. All of his capacities are to a degree predetermined in 
form and content by the selected mental activity of all 
his forbears from whom he inherits a neural mechanism 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 261 

whose qualities and functional capacities their lives have 
chiefly determined. And yet all the evidence goes to show 
that prior to sensory experience there are no ideas, images, 
conscious memories, concepts, judgments or reasoning 
processes. All these and other conscious states are ac- 
quired by the individual through his own activity, but the 
capacity to acquire them is a distinctive feature of his 
human heritage. 

The view we have just presented finds ample justifica- 
tion in the numerous careful studies of the psychology of 
infancy, of which those of Preyer (34), Miss Shinn (41), 
Major (26), and Dearborn (10) are typical. These and 
many other studies leave little doubt that the child at some 
stage of embryonic life is totally devoid of sensory experi- 
ence and certainly, therefore, of all higher mental proc- 
esses. Embryological anatomy, also, comes to the aid of 
psychology by its determination of a time prior to which 
the nervous system is functionally too immature to trans- 
mit nervous impulses. 

When all is said, the time at which consciousness begins 
is, and will remain, purely conjectural. The experience of 
sensation must be judged by the methods of the naturalist 
and the biologist, that is, by inference and analogy, based 
upon the study of behavior, supplemented by the obser- 
vations of the neurologist. So far as the latter are con- 
cerned, there seems little reason to question that all the 
sense organs are functionally mature for a considerable 
period before birth. Children prematurely born as much 
as two or more months have been seen to respond to sen- 
sory stimuli almost as readily as those born at the normal 
period. This has been taken to indicate that, in so far as 
the appropriate stimuli can affect the sense organs in utero, 
sensory experience is possible long before birth. Some 
vague, indefinite sort of prenatal consciousness is, there- 



262 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

fore, postulated by many students of infancy, although its 
nature and content is difficult for us to conceive. The evi- 
dence on this point has been so fully presented in the refer- 
ences mentioned above, and so well summarized by Tracy 
(48) and Miss Tanner (43), that there is no need to present 
it here. It is sufficient for our purpose to say that the in- 
fant is born with a fully developed sensory equipment and 
perhaps a beginning of vague, undifferentiated conscious- 
ness. From this consciousness some would exclude impres- 
sions of sight, hearing, taste, and smell because of the im- 
probability of stimulation of these senses prior to birth, 
but there is not total agreement upon this point. One word 
of caution, not always in the mind of observers, should be 
stated in this connection. It must not be forgotten that 
what the observers see is reactions to stimuli, from which 
they infer a conscious, mental process. Our study of re- 
flexes and instinctive movements has surely shown us that 
the analogy from motor reaction to conscious process is by 
no means a safe one. All statements regarding the con- 
sciousness of the newborn must be accepted with an ele- 
ment of mental reservation. The less actual consciousness 
we attribute the nearer we shall be to the truth, without 
doubt. 

Biologically considered, there seems to be something of 
a hierarchy of the senses. The sense of touch appears to 
be genetically the oldest, the " mother sense," of which 
all the others are differentiated forms. Being oldest ra- 
cially and individually, and because its stimulation is en- 
tirely possible even in the embryonic period, it has been 
assumed to function first. It and the closely related senses 
of temperature, pain, strain, and movement have been 
assumed to furnish the content of the embryonic conscious- 
ness, if there be such. Very soon after birth, if not before, 
all the other senses begin to receive impressions and to add 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 263 

their contribution to consciousness. From these, and the 
inherited predispositions mentioned above, that marvelous 
instrument which we know as the human mind takes its 
start. 

The nature of consciousness in the newborn. The ques- 
tion " What is the baby thinking? " is one of perennial in- 
terest. This, too, it must be said, is a hypothetical ques- 
tion. It may, however, add something to our appreciation 
of the nature of infant mind if we quote a few rather inter- 
esting attempts at description of the probable qualitative 
nature of animal and infant consciousness. One of the ear- 
liest attempts was that oft-quoted one of Professor James 
(21, vol. 1, p. 488), that " the baby, assailed by eyes, ears, 
nose, skin, and entrails all at once, feels it all as one great, 
blooming, buzzing confusion. ,, By this description he seems 
to wish to convey to us the idea of a total lack of relation- 
ship, organization, association, or meaning in early experi- 
ence. His idea seems to be that of a unitary confusion, out 
of which, by a process of many repetitions, particular sen- 
sory experiences and ideas are to be gradually differen- 
tiated. 

Unquestionably Thorndike's description of animal con- 
sciousness might serve almost as well as a description of 
infant consciousness at this stage. Speaking of the former 
he says : — 

It is most like what we feel when consciousness contains little 
thought about anything — when we feel sense impressions in their 
first intention, so to speak; when we feel our own body and the 
impulses we give it. Sometimes one gets this animal consciousness 
for a while in swimming, for example. One feels the water, the sky, 
the birds above, but with no thoughts about them, or memories 
of how they looked at other times, or aesthetic judgments about 
their beauty; one feels no ideas about what movements he will 
make, but feels himself make them, feels bis body throughout. 
Self-consciousness dies away. Social consciousness dies away. The 



264 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

meanings and values and connections of things die away. One feels 
sense impressions, has impulses, feels the movements he makes; 
that is all. 

Thus, by a process of elimination of what he feels cer- 
tain must be absent from the infant's consciousness or that 
of the animal, he attempts to picture its real content and 
qualitative character. Whatever we may think of his sue* 
cess, a conscientious attempt to follow his method will 
amply repay any one who attempts it by giving increased 
insight into our problem. 

Among others, well qualified to attempt such descrip- 
tion, is Miss Shinn who, after her prolonged study of her 
niece, writes as follows: — 

She took in with a dull comfort the gentle light that fell on 
her eyes, seeing without any sort of attention or comprehension 
the moving blurs of darkness that varied it. She felt motions and 
changes; she felt the action of her own muscles, and . . . disagree- 
able shocks of sound now and then broke through the silence, or 
perhaps through an unnoticed jumble of faint noises. She felt 
touches on her body from time to time . . . and steady, slight sen- 
sations of touch from her clothes, from arms that held her, from 
cushions on which she lay, poured in on her. 

From time to time sensations of hunger and thirst, and once or 
twice of pain, made themselves felt through all the others, and 
mounted till they became distressing; from time to time a feeling 
of heightened comfort flowed over her as hunger and thirst were 
satisfied; or release from clothes, and the effect of the bath and 
rubbing on her circulation, increased the net sense of well-being. . . . 
For the rest, she lay empty-minded, neither consciously comfort- 
able nor uncomfortable, yet on the whole pervaded with a dull 
sense of well-being. Of the people about her, of her mother's face, 
of her own existence, of desire or fear, she knew nothing. Yet this 
dim dream was flecked all through with the beginnings of later 
comparison and choice (41, pp. 55 fl\). 

Careful consideration of these three descriptions reveals 
quite a degree of difference of conception. Such a differ- 
ence is still further indicated in our final quotation on this 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 265 

subject from King (22, p. 32), who contends that, " if the 
child is conscious in these first days, it must be with a sort 
of consciousness of which we can form little idea — a mere 
feeling, or sentiency absolutely without definite reference 
of any kind. It is so hypothetical that it is of little use to 
speculate about it." 

One of the insuperable difficulties in this whole matter 
is the fact that verbal description can never accurately 
convey an idea of mental contents or mental processes, so 
different from those which the introspector can himself ex- 
perience. In the infant's first days one observes mind in 
its first intention, so to speak, relatively unaffected by other 
minds or personalities, untrammeled by tradition, unmodi- 
fied by training, unassisted by speech, that very useful 
medium of abstract thought, and therefore indescribably 
different from our own. 

Aside from conjecture as to the probable nature of the 
first consciousness, much of the content of the numerous 
baby biographies has to do with records of the first appear^ 
ances of different perceptions, such as those of time, space, 
color, distance, movement; first recognition of objects; 
first memories; the first signs of fear, anger, jealousy; first 
voluntary acts, and the like. Much attention is also given 
to the order in which the various mental functions appear, 
and the order of their development. In this way the ob- 
servers attempt to form an idea of the growth of infant 
consciousness. 

In all fairness it must be said that we are not likely to 
have too many exact and painstaking accounts of the mi- 
nutest detail of infant behavior. We may, perhaps, have too 
much assurance as to the accuracy of our interpretation 
of this behavior in terms of infant consciousness. There 
is much to justify the contention of King (22), that when 
it comes to the matter of determining the exact time at 



266 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

which a given cognition, emotion, or volition is first pres- 
ent, or the order in which the mental functions appear, our 
effort is quite aside the mark. " The whole assumption," 
he says, " that these questions are of importance, and that 
something can be said about them, involves a radically 
wrong conception of the development of the child " (22, 
p. 17). 

A truer conception of mind may be had by study of its 
processes as they relate to behavior than by analysis and 
description of mental states as such. 1 Our chief interest is 
to know how we may predict responses and how conscious 
states may be so modified as to effect desirable changes in 
behavior. All along we have been considering the child 
as a behaving organism. From the beginning of his life 
he has inborn tendencies to reactions, as we have learned, 
many of which are predetermined in form and in effective- 
ness by the nature of his neuro-muscular systems. But we 
have also learned that these predetermined responses are 
by no means adequate to all the needs of life. It is this 
inadequacy of inborn behavior which makes mental life 
such a useful asset. If there were no such inadequacy, 
mind would be a superfluity. But since inherited adjust- 
ments are inadequate to meet the higher needs, mental re- 
sponses by doing so assume a place of exceptional sig- 
nificance. 

The earliest consciousness must, then, be definitely re- 
lated to and coordinate with the reception and recognition 

1 It should, perhaps, be said at this point that we are using the term 
mind as broader than either consciousness or intelligence, and inclusive of 
both, for it is, in fact, constituted of the phenomena of consciousness and 
intelligence. Consciousness may be thought of as awareness of the various 
phenomena of mental activity. Our conception of intelligence is now under- 
going reconstruction, but for the present we may say that it is the capac- 
ity to make improved adaptations to environment by the intervention of 
mental processes. 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 267 

of stimuli and the mediation of responses. Consciousness 
is for present-day psychologists a process definitely related 
to certain forms of behavior. When the only response 
called for is one of recognition of a stimulus or, perhaps, 
the recognition of its source, the process is simple; when it 
is for a very complicated response, the conscious processes 
are relatively complex. All the complexities of mental proc- 
esses are accompaniments of the increasing complexity of 
impulses and are incident to and correlative with their in- 
tegration, redirection, and control. Selective mental evolu- 
tion is as natural and inevitable as the evolution of instincts. 
" Consciousness, then, exists whenever behavior is influenced 
by ideas or by feelings " (31, p. 319). Under whatever cir- 
cumstances we examine it, we always find the whole mind 
at work at its function of control of physical, mental, or 
social adjustment. Its activity always bears some relation 
to behavior, and it is always unitary and connected. No 
other conception is consonant with the biological viewpoint 
which we have followed throughout our whole discussion. 
If viewed functionally, then, mind cannot be thought of as 
an independent entity, nor as a group of such entities or 
" faculties " more or less independent of each other. 

The infant mind especially, like that of the animal, un- 
questionably deals with totalities and is itself an undiffer- 
entiated totality of processes very simple and elemental 
in nature. Our own developed minds not only are consti- 
tuted of an integrated set of mental processes of much 
greater functional capacity, but they also have a content 
which the infant's mind lacks. It seems certain that sen- 
sations, perceptions, memory images, thoughts, affective 
and conative states, etc., as we experience them, can have 
no existence as separate phenomena. They are part of 
a unitary life process. There is every evidence that for 
some months the infant has no consciousness of self (20), 



268 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

which for us helps both to unify and to diffentiate con- 
scious life. 

Admitting the danger of drawing an analogy from our 
study of the evolutionary differentiation of such physical 
functions as respiration, circulation, digestion, etc., from 
a simpler unitary function, it does seem clear that the 
various components of consciousness just enumerated rep- 
resent a similar division of mental functions in accord with 
a plan found everywhere in nature. How or how rapidly 
this differentiation takes place and when it becomes clearly 
conscious is exceedingly difficult to say. The means by 
which it is effected, however, is none other than the ac- 
tivity of the mind itself, as, true to the inner impulses 
which actuate it, it mediates responses with increasing effec- 
tiveness. The multiplication of such differentiations and 
the perfecting of the various functions can be effected in 
no other way. The fundamental laws of mental growth 
are, in this particular, no different from those of the phys- 
ical. 

If we are consistent in holding to our functional inter- 
pretation of mind, we cannot say that there is first a con- 
sciousness of simple sensations, then of a unification of 
sensations into perceptions, later the rise of images of mem- 
ory, concepts, ideas, etc., and finally an organization of all 
into reasoning processes. Rather we shall have to say that 
all these processes and contents exist in germ in every modi- 
fication of reaction from the beginning. The process we 
call organization is in reality a process of gradual differen- 
tiation from a vague unitary whole which is none of these 
processes, and yet is all of them. Consciousness is able later 
in life to examine one or other aspect of itself, but in any 
other activity than that of introspection all the mental 
functions are integral parts of a complex; they do not exist 
alone. Consciousness of them grows out of a recognition 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 269 

of their meaning, and they unquestionably acquire mean- 
ing solely as they play their respective parts in mediating 
responses. 

Obviously the development of some of the mental func- 
tions progresses more rapidly than others. Sense-percep- 
tion matures earlier than conscious memory; it in turn than 
reasoning. The reason is that the latter are not only proc- 
esses but they deal with contents, furnished by the senses, 
which require time to be built up. Sense-perception is 
immediate and simple; the higher mental processes are de- 
rived and complex. Long after all the functional capacities 
of the mind are in full operation, however, the relatively 
imperfect use made of them constitutes the chief justifica- 
tion for the study of child as distinct from adult psychology. 
A large part of the remainder of this and the following chap- 
ter will be devoted to a consideration of the development 
of the various mental capacities. 

Periods of mental development. The division of mental 
development into stages bounded by definite years is very 
familiar to all who have read, to any extent, the literature 
of child study. We have not space nor is there need at this 
point to attempt detailed characterization of the various 
mental stages. We have in earlier chapters shown our rec- 
ognition of the value of such a procedure by our charac- 
terization by periods of the play, speech, and drawing 
capacities. Of periodicity and rhythm in mental develop- 
ment there can be no doubt, for we meet striking evidences 
of it in many different respects. 

It seems best, having said so much, to say now that we 
are gradually learning that what King calls " the illusion of 
definite periods " has been endangering our recognition of 
the more important fact that, in every individual, develop- 
ment is a continuous process of successive changes rather 
than a succession of distinct and widely different periods. 



270 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

It is true that there are certain outstanding characteristics 
of infancy and of adolescence, for example, which make a 
differentiation of these from other periods not only pos- 
sible but useful. It cannot be denied that there are points 
in mental development when, by a combination of factors, 
what appear to be very sudden and marked changes take 
place, just as we know they do in physical development. 
It is, however, the wide individual differences in this mat- 
ter that we wish to emphasize. 

We are merely stressing the point, sometimes neglected, 
that in our attempts to describe the average child — " that 
plenary being * the child,' " as Dewey expresses it (22, 
p. xvii) — we must not overlook the fact that in the individ- 
ual case, at least from the second or third year on, there is 
no fundamental capacity or trait which, present then, is 
wholly lacking thereafter, and no later development which 
had not its beginning in the period preceding this age. 
Development through infancy, childhood, and youth to 
maturity is, as a rule, an orderly and lawful process. We 
must not allow extreme cases to obscure this fact. Any 
thoughtful attempt to characterize a particular period, if 
based upon the scientific facts in the case, must bring the 
conviction that each stage merges into the succeeding one, 
and that the obvious, outstanding traits of each period have 
their beginnings in preceding stages and merge into suc- 
ceeding ones. 

In general it may be said that the character of mental 
life at any period is determined by the necessities of the 
period. In early infancy, for example, lack of mental con- 
tent coupled with the native impulse to activity results in 
a rapid accumulation of sensory and motor experience. 
The senses are ready for stimulation, the muscles for ac- 
tivity. Without such content as is furnished through these 
avenues the higher mental processes are impossible, and 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 271 

it is not strange that this period strikes us as largely 
a period of sensory-motor acquisition. But even here 
motor habits are being formed and the basis for con- 
scious memory laid down, associations established, affec- 
tive states initiated, habits formed, and little by little in- 
hibitions, volitions, and practical judgments foreshadowed, 
and the basis laid for the constructive reasoning processes 
of maturer years. Quite as much harm may, therefore, 
result from underestimating as from overestimating the 
ability of young children to use the capacities supposed to 
belong only to older heads. 

Similarly if at adolescence a marked improvement of 
reasoning capacity seems to be a characteristic of the 
period, we must not allow this fact to obscure the equally 
important one that the mills of reasoning do not grind 
without grist. It is the richness, variety, and suitability 
of ideas, the stimulation and the checking of impulses by 
the experience of all the preceding years, which furnishes 
the content without which clear and logical thinking is im- 
possible. The apparent sudden blossoming of such capaci- 
ties often mystifies and surprises us, but it may be that when 
we know more of the causes which further mental develop- 
ment much of the mystery will disappear, and we shall find 
an orderliness and regularity in mental life that we now 
only faintly glimpse. 

Some general principles. The ultimate practical values 
of child psychology depend to a great extent upon the 
possibility of discovering and formulating general prin- 
ciples of mental growth which can be accepted as guides 
to mental training. The science of child psychology is yet 
new, and most of its laws in the formative and, therefore, 
tentative stage. A few general principles, however, are 
becoming clear. 

(i) The principle of growth. The basic principle since 



872 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

the development and acceptance of the theory of evolution 
is the principle of growth. Our entire discussion has as- 
sumed, elaborated, and illustrated this principle. If mind 
is not an evolution, there is no excuse for a genetic or child 
psychology. If it is, the growth concept applied to all its 
phases gives the most illuminating and only correct con- 
cept of its nature and content. The plasticity, growth, and 
development of child mind are so obvious, and have been 
so often stressed throughout our earlier chapters, that the 
correctness and importance of this principle need no fur- 
ther emphasis. 

{2) Tim **lmo of recapitulation" One of the earliest and 
most general of the principles formulated by child study is 
the so-called "law of recapitulation," the application of 
which in the physical field we have already considered. 
The proponents of this " law " hold that the mind is not 
only a growth marked by progressive changes in the indi- 
vidual and in the race, but that the individual mind in the 
course of its development passes through more or less def- 
inite stages or periods, corresponding to the successive 
stages through which mind has passed in the animal series 
from the lowest to the highest forms. It is particularly 
stated that the stages through which the human mind has 
passed are recapitulated, — lived over again in the order 
in which they were passed through in the evolution of the 
genus homo. The most ardent advocates of the theory 
admit that it is much more difficult to establish than the 
theory of physical recapitulation which, as we have seen, 
is not universally accepted among scientists. Stages over- 
lap, some are missing, frequent reversals of order are noted, 
some stages occupy exceedingly short and others exces- 
sively long periods, all without adequate explanation. 
Much use is made of rather questionable analogies with 
physical development, but perhaps chief dependence is 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 273 

placed in the study of psychic rudiments, atavisms, rever- 
sions, objectless emotions, and the like. By far the greater 
part of the evidence on mental recapitulation has been 
gathered by President Hall and his students, and largely 
upon it and our preceding principle he has founded a ge- 
netic philosophy of education. His explanation of the breaks 
in the parallelism between individual and racial develop- 
ment is that other factors are at work tending to obscure 
and cover up the real relationships. Among these the most 
important are the traditions of adult society and the forces 
of the very radically-changed physical, social, and mental 
environment into which children are now born. These it is 
held tend to " suppress, modify, and obliterate his inher- 
itance, and obscure the recapitulatory steps " (32, p. 31). 

At the time when this theory was in the period of its 
greatest popularity its pedagogical corollary — the so- 
called culture-epoch theory — also had great vogue. This 
theory which attempted to base the content and method 
of education upon the assumption that for each recapitu- 
latory stage there is a mental pabulum alone suited to it 
was carried to ridiculous extremes. Racial activities in 
their primitive form were formulated for each stage — the 
pastoral, hunting, fishing stages, etc. — to furnish suitable 
activity for the child while in the corresponding stage. The 
theory has long since fallen into disrepute but, perhaps, 
has been partly responsible for the present fortunate rec- 
ognition of the fact that instruction must be suited to in- 
dividual capacity and need. 

(3) Periodicity and rhythm. If the theory of recapitula- 
tion should ultimately be rejected except in its very broad 
and general implications we still have the principle of 
periodicity and rhythm illustrated again and again in al- 
most every phase of mental growth. The facts of periodic- 
ity and rhythm are so obvious and so numerous that* 



274 . CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

taken together, they establish the principle whatever the 
cause may be. 

(4) Continuity. The principle of continuity in mental 
development asserts orderliness, sequence, and cause and 
effect relationships without which it would be impossible 
to understand mental content, mental activity, or the be- 
havior which they condition. One experience conditions 
another, thought follows thought, elemental mental proc- 
esses are associated with one another in one continuous 
stream of consciousness, higher mental processes are con- 
ditioned by and built upon lower and more elemental ones, 
and consciousness of self persists from day to day and year 
to year. These are accepted facts, all illustrative of the 
continuity of mental life upon which we place absolute 
dependence in our dealings with ourselves and with others. 

(5) Self -activity. The principle of self-activity is a corol- 
lary of that of growth. As with the body, growth and de- 
velopment are impossible without activity, so is mental 
growth and development impossible without mental ac- 
tivity. It is a matter, therefore, of the profoundest signif- 
icance that native impulses to mental activity of the most 
persistent and varied kind are the most obvious and uni- 
versal traits in all normal children. This principle means 
that no environmental influence, no stimuli of any sort, 
no amount of provision of suitable media of instruction 
or training, no impartation of information, not even the 
inheritance of native reaction tendencies, can have the 
slightest effect in promoting mental development except 
as these things are responded to by the individual to be 
educated. Adults may furnish the educational means and 
materials, but they cannot create the motive power, nor 
can they perform the educative activities for a child. What 
the individual himself does, not what others do for him, 
to him, or in his presence, develops, trains, and educates 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES Kltt 

him. If the principles of education are reduced to their 
lowest terms they will all be found to be involved in this 
one — the principle of self-activity. All our present-day in- 
sistence upon spontaneity, freedom, initiative, and origi- 
nality is evidence of our discovery and recognition of the 
fundamental truth of this doctrine. When we have come 
to use it as fully and as skillfully in practice as we now do 
in theory, educational practice will have made great prog- 
ress. 

(6) Individual variation. Studies of child mind have not 
only revealed vast and numberless individual differences, 
but have determined their general nature, extent, and dis- 
tribution with so much certainty that in respect to large 
numbers we may be said to have laws of individual varia- 
tion for particular mental traits which enable us to predict, 
with a fair degree of accuracy, the approximate number 
who will possess a given trait, and the approximate quali- 
tative differences in a group. On the other hand, the prin- 
ciple furnishes a wholesome check against the tendency 
to draw hasty conclusions concerning an individual from 
data based on the average in a group. 

(7) Laws of learning. It is now possible to formulate 
both general and special laws of learning. Thorndike (45) 
formulates three general ones which he terms: (1) the law 
of readiness; (2) the law of exercise; and (3) the law of effect. 
The law of readiness is best illustrated by the inborn ten- 
dencies to respond to stimuli, quite apart from previous 
experience or training. This and the extreme plasticity of 
the response-tendencies of the human being make learn- 
ing possible. The law of exercise generalizes the facts that 
use tends to form and fix habits, to strengthen interests and 
powers, and to perfect skills. Negatively it implies that 
by disuse native tendencies detrimental to learning are 
changed, weakened, or abolished. The law of effect merely 



276 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

generalizes upon many well-known facts of mental life, 
such as the fact that things which have been repeatedly 
together in consciousness with satisfaction to the subject 
tend to recur together and to reinforce one another, that 
repeated association of displeasure with a given response 
tends to inhibit it, that absence of opportunity to make a 
given response tends to make it disappear, and many simi- 
lar facts of common experience. 

There is not space to discuss the many specific laws of 
apperception, of association, of attention, of memory, of 
habit, of reasoning, etc., all of which are corollaries of the 
general laws of learning. These are familiar to students of 
general psychology. They and their applications make up 
much of the content of present day educational psychology, 
which occupies middle ground between child psychology 
and educational practice. 

Summary 

1. The mind of man and the minds of the higher animals 
differ vastly in degree of development, but not essen- 
tially in kind. 

2. Biologically, mind originated to meet necessities of 
adjustment for which instinct and impulse were in- 
sufficient. 

3. Mind had its racial origin in movements, or in the 
process of their inhibition and control. 

4. In individual life, also, conscious processes mediate 
responses; they never exist without purpose. 

5. With the higher, constructive thought-processes es- 
pecially, the law of inertia or the " law of parsimony " 
rules; they are used only when they must be. 

6. Mind is a unit made of many highly differentiated sets 
* of processes, mediating different functions. Sensing, 



GENERAL FACTS AND PRINCIPLES 277 

perceiving, remembering, associating, attending, imag- 
ing, reasoning are not separate " faculties," but desig- 
nate various more or less complex functions of the 
mind at work. 

7. The content of consciousness comes through the 
senses and the intellectual working over of sense 
materials, but physical and mental inheritance in 
part determine what contents shall be assimilated 
and what forms consciousness shall assume. 

8. Just when consciousness begins is an interesting prob- 
lem, but one of very much less importance than that 
of the nature of consciousness and the laws of its de- 
velopment. 

9. The consciousness of infancy is a vague, confused 
unitary complex, out of which the various mental 
functions develop in the process of its activity. 

10. The periodicity of mental development must not be 
allowed to obscure its continuity. 

11. The ultimate object of child psychology is to formu- 
late the laws of mental development and of learning. 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Explain the expressions "no psychosis without neurosis" and "all 
consciousness is motor." 

2. If these expressions are true, what conclusions do you draw from them 
concerning sensory and motor activities in childhood? 

8. What values may there be in attempts to determine when mind began 
in the race, and when consciousness begins in the individual? 

4. Explain the viewpoint of genetic psychology. 

6. What is meant by innate ideas? What is the tabula rasa idea of 
mind? 

6. How can mental life be pre-determined if there are no innate ideas? 

7. Does the order of development of the senses suggest anything con- 
cerning their relative importance in mental development? 

8. What is the chief contribution of the so-called baby biographies? 

9. Attempt by introspection and elimination to imagine what the 
mental life of a Laura Bridgman or a Helen Keller must be like, 
without sensations of sight or hearing. 



278 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

10. What pedagogical bearing has the fact that thinking takes place only 
under the spur of a real need of adjustment in behavior? 

11. What is the difficulty in attempting to mark off definite stages of 
mental development? 

12. Give one or two illustrations under each of the general principles of 
mental development. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Bibliography for this chapter is combined with that at the close of 
Chapter XII. 

NOTE 

In using Chapters XI and XII teachers and students are urged to make 
large use of the supplementary references listed in our Bibliography (pp. 
300-02), especially the numbers marked with a star (*) and numbers 8, 15, 
36, 45, and 50. If this is done, the topics here very briefly treated can be 
studied quite satisfactorily and the student left with a good working knowl- 
edge of the present status of child psychology. 



CHAPTER XII 

GENERAL MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 
II. Particular Capacities 

If, now, we bear in mind what has been said about the 
essential unity of mental functions, we may with profit 
briefly outline some of the general tendencies of develop- 
ment of a few of the more important ones. 

Sense-perception and apperception. Sensation is the 
elemental function which, through the medium of the 
highly specialized organs of sense, begins the process of 
differentiation of consciousness of which we have spoken. 
The nature of our mental content depends on nothing quite 
so much as upon that which the senses bring. Their activity, 
then, and the way in which they perform it, is a matter of 
prime importance, particularly throughout the early stages 
of mental growth. Observations and experiments show that 
sensory keenness, as indicated by the intensity of stimulus 
necessary to produce a just noticeable sensation (stimu- 
lus limen), unquestionably improves somewhat during the 
early years. This appears to be due to a certain immaturity 
of the organs of sense, and to inability to control the " set " 
of the sense organ for the reception of stimuli. Capacity 
for discrimination, as marked by the ability to recognize 
very slight differences in stimuli (difference limeri), seems, 
also, to show rather decided improvement for some years. 
Recent experiments, however, that have been more suc- 
cessful in isolating particular sense capacities so as to test 
their elemental form, indicate that changes in them are by 
no means so great or so long continued as once was thought, 



280 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

Both the stimulus limen and the difference limen appear 
now to be largely matters of native endowment which 
change very little with age, sex, training, or even with in- 
telligence. The unquestioned improvement of facility in 
the exercise and use of these fundamental capacities seems 
to be due far more to cognitive factors, control of atten- 
tion, better understanding, greater interest and need, and 
to the strength of affective elements than to changes in the 
elemental sense capacities themselves. Seashore (40), for 
example, finds the elemental capacity for discrimination 
of tones and of brief intervals of time about as good when 
the child enters school as it ever is, and that at this age 
many children excel many adults. He believes that when 
we succeed in isolating other elemental capacities we shall 
find the same to be true of them. If this should prove to 
be the case the so-called " training of the senses " is in real- 
ity not an improvement of elemental capacities, but rather 
a training in report, statement, control, and use of what the 
senses all along have given. 

The perceptive and apperceptive processes, on the other 
hand, are to a far greater extent conditioned by exercise 
and training. Sense impressions, entirely meaningless to 
begin with, acquire, when repeated in a great variety of 
slightly different situations, vastly improved definiteness, 
meaning, and significance through the infant's reactions 
to them. Explorations that have been made of the mental 
content of little children indicate quantitative differences 
between infancy and childhood, and between childhood 
and maturity, which are almost unbelievably great. The 
instinctive and imitative responses of children tend to 
blind us to the inadequacy, incompleteness, and actual 
incorrectness of much of their mental content. The most 
rapid and continuous change from infancy to maturity 
is unquestionably a change in the quantity and quality 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 281 

of the so-called "apperceptive mass." There can be little 
doubt that by far the greatest relative changes in this re- 
gard occur during the pre-school period, and again at adoles- 
cence. There are indications of periods of slow and of 
rapid quantitative and qualitative change, the reasons for 
which it would be worth our while to know far better 
than we do now. 

But these are not the only changes that apperception 
undergoes. There are characteristic changes, also, in the 
forms or categories under which apperception takes place. 
So clearly have these been made out, and so definitely do 
they tend to follow one another, that tests of the presence 
of those which belong to certain stages of development are 
now made one of the criteria for estimating the level of a 
child's intelligence. As examples, we may cite the cate- 
gories under which children define words, or " report " on 
observation of pictures. Apperceptive categories continue 
to undergo qualitative change until maturity, the higher 
types being often almost entirely absent, even at maturity, 
with those of low intelligence. 

Attention. We no longer have place in psychology for 
h " faculty " or power of attention. As Baldwin has well 
said, " attention is a function of the content " (2, p. 444) 
of mind. It may almost be added that it is also a function 
of instinct, for that complex set of processes which we call 
attention concerns itself with things and activities which 
give promise of satisfying instinctive cravings, or which 
fill out the aching voids in present mental content, which 
is, perhaps, saying the same thing. Each instinct as it 
rises and ripens becomes an urgent impulse to certain dis- 
tinctive processes of attention; prompts the gathering and 
using, from the vast field of possible experiences, such as 
are suited to present needs. What appetite and digestion 
are to the consumption and ass ; dilation of { jod, attention 



282 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

is to the gathering and assimilation of mental contents. 
The processes of attention do not naturally turn toward, 
or hold to, mental contents which find no instinctive readi- 
ness or basis in related past experience. It is, then, very 
clear that the objects of attention will vary from year to 
year as instincts ripen and as experience broadens. It is 
one of the most obvious traits of infancy and childhood that 
the strongest, newest, most vivid stimuli attract atten- 
tion. Attention, too, is then dominated by the concrete, 
the real, the purely sensory, by moving things, and by 
things to which the child may respond by movement. 

The domination of the instincts throughout childhood 
amply explains the fact that attentive processes are the 
prey to every passing whim. Distractions, if they make 
instinctive appeal, carry attention here and there in rapidly 
shifting pulses, and ability to maintain prolonged atten- 
tion, to adapt attention to constructive purposes, to extend 
its range, or to protect it against fatigue, in such cases, are 
among the most difficult attainments of developing mind 
and among the surest signs of the growth of content. Only 
the capacity for reasoning, it is believed, shows higher cor- 
relation with intelligence than the capacity for sustaining 
attention. So important is the type and quality of attention 
in acquisition, retention, and use of knowledge that there 
is little reason to dissent from the view of Montessori that 
" when you have solved' the problem of controlling the 
attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem 
of education." (N.E.A. 1915.) 

Between infancy and maturity there is no total change 
in type, or quality, or in the objects of attention. There 
are, however, very marked changes in the relative promi- 
nence in maturer years of active or prolonged attention, 
of attention to the most significant rather than the most 
striking or obvious elements in situations, of attention to 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 283 

ideas and abstractions rather than to things. Attention, 
also, becomes more stable, less easily distracted, less sus- 
ceptible to fatigue, and is accompanied by far fewer gross 
bodily movements. The individual differences in all these 
particulars are so great that it seems useless to attempt 
to say to what degree children of a particular period have 
progressed from the state of the infant, described above, 
to that we have just characterized. Adults do not wholly 
lack the types and qualities of attention that belong to 
the infant; infants wholly, and children to a large extent, 
lack the mental content to which some adults attain. 
There is no more important and challenging problem be- 
fore the child psychologist than to determine how atten- 
tion can be made to serve continuously through life the 
ends that are most worth while. 

Association. The connecting links between perceptions, 
ideas, movements and the process by which such connections 
are made, are both spoken of as association. It is of the pro- 
cess that we here speak. The act of association is in part 
pre-determined by native tendencies, and in part by the 
exigencies of chance or directed experience. However they 
may have originated, associations play an exceedingly 
important role in all the higher mental processes, furnish- 
ing as they do the supply of materials with which the mind 
works. The richness and meaning of conscious life, the 
wealth of its imagery, its fidelity, its originality, the degree 
of its organization, and the possibility of development of 
its higher forms of activity and usefulness, depend to no 
small degree upon the number, quality, and variety of its 
associative connections, and the rapidity and accuracy 
with which they are formed in consciousness. The experi- 
mental literature on some of these points is decidedly lim- 
ited, so far as children are concerned, and such as we have is 
not in total agreement. It seems fairly certain, though, that 



284 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

in all the respects mentioned above, there is improvement 
with age and experience. There are very great individual 
differences, as with all the higher capacities. Improvement 
in the rate of association is, perhaps, most in dispute, 
Ziehen and Meumann having found steady improvement 
with age, while Rusk, in a somewhat more carefully exe- 
cuted test, found no direct relation to age. Improvement 
in rapidity of association is measured by decrease in reac- 
tion time; in quality by the increasing tendency to attend to 
the most significant rather than the most obvious or custom- 
ary associations, and to those belonging to the higher cate- 
gories; in variety by the capacity to multiply associations 
at will; in fidelity by the improvement in the capacity to 
memorize and to retain definite associations between ideas 
and experiences. The character of associations gives some 
clue to the individual's mental type. There are indications, 
too, of an increase with age in the number of verbal associ- 
ations. Depending as it does upon the general quality and 
organization of the neural tissues, the basal capacity of any 
individual is likely to be more a matter of endowment than 
of training. 

Memory. The experimental literature on the develop- 
ment of memory is now so extensive that a volume could 
be written on it alone. Out of all this study a few impor- 
tant, outstanding facts may be mentioned. 

Capacity for retention, like that of sensory discrimina- 
tion, seems, as Professor James long ago indicated, to be 
an inborn one dependent upon the hereditary quality of the 
brain tissues and therefore not susceptible to improvement 
by training. This does not mean that the ability to memo- 
rize cannot be vastly improved. Few capacities are suscep- 
tible to greater improvement. Improvement in memoriz- 
ing must be distinguished from improvement of native 
retentiveness. Retention of the effects of experiences, so 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 285 

that they modify subsequent behavoir, seems to be at first 
an organic rather than a conscious matter. All studies of 
the memories of infancy and early childhood made in later 
years show an almost complete loss of specific memories 
of childhood and infancy. Most of the innumerable expe- 
riences of the early years are so often repeated, in slightly 
different form, that they tend for this and other reasons to 
leave certain organic changes and sink below the level of 
consciousness. Rarely can any adult recall more than an 
isolated memory or two extending back as far as the third 
or fourth year, and the great mass of experiences prior to 
school age and even for several years thereafter is, for most 
adults, long forgotten past recall. This does not mean that 
the experiences of these years have left no trace, nor that 
they do not have conscious value. Nothing could be fur- 
ther from the truth. All experimentation and observation 
on this point at present seems to indicate that these years 
are the most important, in many ways, of the whole life. 

The fact of total disappearance of the earliest memories 
throws some interesting light upon the nature of memory 
in infancy which confirms the findings of first-hand studies 
of the period itself. Major (26) attributes the weakness 
of memory in infancy to: (1) the weakness of association 
and the lack of continuity of mind; (2) to the lack of accu- 
rate localization of experience in time and place; (3) to the 
dominance of peripheral over central excitation of recall, 
and the consequent confusion of percepts with memory 
images; (4) to the lack of " trains of imagery "; and (5) to 
the lack of voluntary recall. 

Hairs (19) fascinating exploration of his own early mem- 
ories shows, what is perhaps the universal tendency of the 
memories of infancy, an apparent " lapse to vague and 
evanescent emotions " with only a " glint of vague famil- 
iarity " coming to consciousness when scenes, that must 



286 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

have been very familiar, were re-presented to sense after 
the lapse of many years. On the other hand, long-forgot- 
ten incidents and scenes of later childhood " glowed up 
vividly in memory " in the presence of old associations. 
In his case memory became sequent and coherent from 
puberty on. He is certain, however, that the exceedingly 
rich and varied experience of his infancy and early child- 
hood forms the whole basis and groundwork of his psychic 
life, and that the latter would have been entirely different 
had his environment been radically different from what it 
was. His conclusion is that the memories of infancy and 
childhood become a tangled meshwork of impressions, so 
felted together that no one image can be made to stand out 
from all the rest. 

A wealth of experimental study has proven that memory 
span for digits, letters, nonsense syllables, and for connected 
meaningful material increases, from the time the child pos- 
sesses any capacity at all in this respect, well into adoles- 
cence, if not to complete maturity. This, as well as other 
changes in memory capacity with age, is undoubtedly due 
to the great dependence of recall and recognition as well 
as of memorizing upon attention and association, both of 
which, as we have already indicated, improve with age and 
experience. 

Most experiments show that there are minor fluctuations 
in the curves of improvement of all memory functions, 
periods of acceleration and retardation, perhaps correla- 
tive with those of physical growth. 

Among the various special memories those for objects, 
scenes, sounds, movements, and the like are earlier itf 
development than those for ideas, abstract concepts, 01 
words, and especially those for emotions, memory for which 
becomes greatly strengthened after pubescence. The rela- 
tive frequency and fidelity of memories of these various 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 287 

types differ widely at successive stages of development. 
In this the natural and rapidly fluctuating interests of suc- 
cessive periods, as well as the prevailing type of imagery, 
are large factors. The most striking difference in the special 
memories of children and adults is the prevailing concrete- 
ness of those of the former, and the far greater predomi- 
nance of verbal content in case of the latter. There is little 
doubt that in early years the generic imagery is quantita- 
tively very different from the conceptual or generalized 
images which are possible with adults. 

The relative prominence of visual, auditory, motor, tac- 
tual, olfactory, gustatory, and other minor types of imagery 
is not easily determined. It is certain that visual, auditory, 
motor, and a combination of the three make up by far the 
largest proportion of all imagery. It is difficult to isolate 
and test, with any degree of certainty, capacities which 
are so purely subjective and for accounts of which we must 
depend entirely upon introspection. While there has been 
much experimentation, the course of development of any 
one type or the changes in their relative strength at differ- 
ent periods is still much in doubt. There seems to be no 
doubt that the visual type is by far the most prevalent at 
every age, though it tends to change from a concrete- visual 
to a mixed verbal-content after childhood has passed. 
There is evidence from the experiments of Smedley (51, 
pp. 177, 197) that the auditory memory is stronger than 
the visual in the early years, but that after nine years it 
improves less rapidly and after fourteen years improves very 
little, while visual memory shows a large amount of improve- 
ment to at least seventeen years. More significant practic- 
ally and educationally are the decided individual differences 
in type which are an exceedingly important element in 
determining capacity for some kinds of learning and for 
some vocations. 



288 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

Imagination. Early infancy seems largely to be given 
over with abandon to absorption in sense impressions. 
Evidence of any free play of imagery is lacking. When 
imaging begins, imagery with recognition (memory proper) 
considerably precedes imagery without such reference (im- 
agination in the narrower sense), as it precedes productive 
and constructive imagination, if we may be allowed to 
judge by behavior. When the time does come, at three 
years or so, when the mind frees itself from the literalness of 
sense there is a period when often there is for a time quite 
as much abandon to the wildest flights of imagination as 
formerly there was to sense impressions. This is seen in doll 
play, in imaginary companionship, in the imaginative lie, in 
interest in fairy stories, in the wealth of fabrication and 
make-believe which constitute so large a part of many 
children's plays and games. Normally the increase of ex* 
perience in dealing with reality, training, and education 
causes this type of imagination to wane with the passing 
of early childhood. 

In later childhood and adolescence imagination takes on 
new forms and different content. Personal and vocational 
ambitions and ideals, exploits, adventures, inventions, day- 
dreaming, and romancing are among the most prevalent 
forms for these years. All these have been repeatedly in- 
vestigated by Barnes (1) and many others so that the 
changes in them with age are well known. These studies 
have much suggestiveness for the parent and teacher, but 
we must take it for granted that the reader will familiarize 
himself with some of the original studies. The unrestrained, 
fanciful type of imagination tends naturally to decline 
throughout childhood, except as it shows itself in the ado- 
lescent phenomena of day-dreaming and romance, where 
it may be quite as unrestrained as in early childhood. 

Tests of imagination are difficult to apply or to evaluate. 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 289 

The much used inkblot test reveals wide individual differ- 
ences in the number and kind of imagery which the same 
inkblot suggests, as well as the fact that younger children 
are more imaginative in such a test than older ones. When 
they have been longer in use, linguistic invention, word- 
building tests, the Ebbinghaus completion test, interpre- 
tation of fables, and numerous others, now used in the 
various intelligence scales, will throw further light on the 
development of imagination. It is too early as yet to draw 
many trustworthy conclusions. 

The imaginative activity of children is on the whole far 
more reproductive, imitative, fluctuating, purposeless, and 
unsystematic than that of the adolescent or the adult. 
Practical and ethical difficulties often arise in the case of 
those who cannot learn to turn dreaming into doing; to 
distinguish make-believe from reality; or to hold the mind 
to the completion of worthy ends. On the other hand, to 
stifle or to kill imagination not only deprives the indi- 
vidual of one of the greatest sources of possible harmless 
pleasure, but also destroys one of the chief agents of indi- 
vidual improvement and of human progress. Surely no 
thoughtful person would deprive the girl of her inalien- 
able right to live over in doll or house play, with all the 
fullness and richness that imagination can suggest, the 
multitudinous incidents of ideal domestic life and industry. 
Certainly no wise parent or teacher will attempt to curb 
or harness the inventive, heroic, ambitious, lawless, and 
adventurous spirit of the pubescent boy by violent or sud- 
den disillusionment. Few tasks require more understand- 
ing or greater wisdom than that of disciplining the imagina- 
tion without destroying it. 

Evolution of the feelings and emotions. According to 
Titchener (47, p. 226), " there is an elementary affective 
process, a feeling-element, which in our own minds is co- 



290 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

ordinate with sensation and distinguishable from it, but 
which is nevertheless akin to sensation and is derived from 
the same source, made (so to speak) out of the same kind 
of primitive mental material: this elementary process k 
termed affection." In other words we not only sense, we 
feel; we not only make movements, have perceptions, mem- 
ories, etc., but very often almost the entire significance of 
these things for consciousness lies in the way in which they 
affect us. Hall even contends that the feelings and emo- 
tions make up nine tenths of life, are " vastly more impor- 
tant and fundamental," and " are not only far greater in 
volume than thought, but their power in determining con- 
duct outweighs the reason many fold " (3£, p. 32). In- 
tellect is more largely the individual aspect of mind; the 
emotions are predominantly racial. 

As yet we know very little about the conscious aspect 
of the child's emotional life. Even with adults the con- 
scious content of the various emotions has relatively little 
variety, and is obscure and elusive to introspection. Tc 
study this phase of mental life in children from that stand- 
point is, therefore, next to impossible, and we are thrown 
back upon such insight as can be had from the study of 
the natural history of the various emotions, which after 
all is far more illuminating than analysis or description of 
introspections could be. Detailed natural histories of the 
emotions of fear, anger, pity, love, jealousy, and many 
others have from time to time been published in the Peda- 
gogical Seminary. The suggestiveness of this method can 
only be appreciated by the reading of one or more of the 
originals. 

On the basis of such studies Hall makes some most strik- 
ing contrasts of the emotional life of children and adults. 
" They are abandoned to joy, grief, passion, fear, and rage. 
They are bashful, show off, weep, laugh, desire, are curi- 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 291 

ous, eager, regret, and swell with passion, not knowing 
that these last two are especially outlawed by our guild. 
There is color in their souls, brilliant, livid, loud. Their 
hearts are yet young, fresh, and in the golden age." On 
the other hand, " Our sensibilities are refined but our per- 
spective is narrow, our experiences serene and regular, we 
are protected, our very philosophy as well as our religion 
suppresses and looks with some contempt even upon en- 
thusiasm in matters of cold reason. . . . Our sentiments 
are over-subtilized and sophisticated and reduced to puny 
reactions to music and appreciation of art that is nine parts 
criticism and one part appreciation. What we have felt is 
second-hand, bookish, shop-worn, and the heart is parched 
and bankrupt " (17, vol. 2, pp. 59-60). 

From many sources we have evidence that the affective 
elements in infant consciousness are relatively more tran- 
sient, unstable, more often objectless, and more easily 
produced or inhibited by suggestion, when within the range 
of his experience, than is the case with older children and 
adults. In all these matters age and experience bring con- 
tinuous change. 

If we turn to the outward and organic expression of the 
emotions, their development seems to be marked by a cer- 
tain periodicity, a waxing and waning of their strength with 
rather marked high points at four or five years, and again 
just following pubescence, with a decline thereafter. From 
this it has been argued that the emotions of children are 
stronger than those of adults. This conclusion is doubtful, 
if by it is meant anything more than that the expression 
of child emotion is more unrestrained. The fickleness and 
variability of the emotions throughout childhood rather 
argue for a relative weakness and instability of the con- 
scious affective experience. 

There is most certainly a development of capacity for the 



CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

control of emotional expression. The emotional abandon of 
certain periods and for certain emotions can be closely cor- 
related with the nascency of certain instincts, such as those 
of self-preservation, pugnacity, sex, and the like. With 
the development of general mental and motor control, the 
elimination or modification of certain instinctive response 
tendencies, or their reduction to modified habits, the emo- 
tional life runs a more even and stable course, perhaps too 
stable, as our quotation above indicates. 

Correlative with the changes of which we have been 
speaking there takes place a refinement and complicating 
of affective processes which give rise to the so-called higher 
emotions, the moods and sentiments which, to begin with, 
the infant no more possesses than he does highly complex 
states of cognition or thought, or the physical traits of ma- 
turity. The grosser, more primitive emotions belong to a 
more elemental stage of existence; the higher, more com- 
plex, more refined, such as the religious, the moral, and 
aesthetic, contain much more of the intellectual element 
and therefore reach their full development relatively late. 

No one has better analyzed the relationship of emotional 
life to conduct and social relations than McDougall (27). 
He thinks that the organization of the emotional life into 
Sentiments is of the utmost importance. " The sentiment 
is a growth in the structure of mind that is not natively 
given in the inherited constitution " (27, p. 159). Chil- 
dren do not, prior to extended experience, have sentiments. 
They experience fear, anger, and perhaps disgust, in the 
presence of persons or objects which naturally excite such 
emotions, but do not cherish hate as an abiding sentiment 
when the exciting object is absent. That comes only when 
" an organized system of emotional tendencies centered 
about some object " (27, p. 122), or the idea of some object, 
has been formed. It is the sentiments as thus defined 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 293 

which McDougall thinks bring order and continuity into 
the chaos of primitive emotional life. So much weight do 
the affective elements of consciousness have that only those 
whose judgments of value and right are rooted in the high- 
est and best moral sentiments have stability of moral prin- 
ciples and moral character. If, then, nine tenths of life is 
emotion and one tenth intellect, what proportion of our 
time and effort in education should be devoted to the cul- 
ture of the emotions and the establishment of worthy sen- 
timents? 

Reasoning. The whole literature of child psychology 
does not furnish a single satisfactory chapter on the sub- 
ject of children's reasoning, and many writers on other 
topics pass the subject by entirely. The truth is that almost 
no scientific study has been made of this most important 
phase of child mind. Opinions as to children's capacity to 
reason range from statements that they can reason before 
they can talk to the extreme that they show only the germs 
of logical thinking at fifteen years (38, p. 5); from state- 
ments that the reasoning of children is entirely different 
from that of adults to statements that the difference is only 
one of degree. In no phase of child psychology, then, is it 
more dangerous to dogmatize; in none is further study more 
imperative. 

Much, of course, depends upon the definition of the 
term. If by reasoning is meant a new organization of ideas 
for the purpose of effecting satisfactory adjustment to a 
new or problematic situation, it is evident that a store of 
ideas and images and some capacity to control them ii 
necessary to such a process. In that case the infant must 
certainly lack the capacity to begin with. As Thorndike 
(46, p. 290) has well pointed out, "vague sense impressions 
and impulses make up his mental life." But very soon the 
multiplication of associations makes ideas and images stand 



294 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

out. Given a large body of ideas, the instinct of mental 
activity insures comparison and thought about them, for 
" ideas carry within them the forces that make abstrac- 
tions, feelings of similarity, judgments, and other charac- 
teristics of reasoning " (46, p. 292). In the sense in which 
we are using the term, therefore, it is entirely misleading 
to say that the reasoning capacity is undeveloped until 
puberty. 

The child's inferiority in reasoning all must admit, for 
there are many adequate reasons for such inferiority. 
Poverty of experience and of ideas; the preponderance of 
sensational and affective elements in consciousness; domi- 
nation by the instincts; greater susceptibility to suggestion; 
relative lack of control over the mental processes in gen- 
eral; ignorance of the many sources of error in thinking; 
vagueness of ends; incompleteness of concepts; total lack, 
during early years, of knowledge of the logical forms of 
thought, — these and many other limitations often make 
the results of a child's reasoning very different from those 
of the adult. What we wish to stress here is the fact that 
the processes are functionally the same in kind, though not 
in degree of accuracy and effectiveness. Certainly by the 
third year every normal child possesses and uses all the 
capacities and processes involved in adult reasoning. It is 
in the degree of success with which he uses them that he 
differs from his elders. His ideas are few; his concepts 
faulty; his premises often wrong; his capacity to evaluate 
ideas or to use analysis and synthesis very limited; his 
judgment untrained and unskillful; his capacity to hold 
attention and to direct the flow of consciousness to defi- 
nite ends far below that of adults and, therefore, the results 
of his thinking appear to us " irrational," although arrived 
at by a true reasoning process. In spite of all these limi- 
tations children often reason well in particular types of 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 295 

situation in which experience has reduced their effect to a 
minimum. To quote Miss Calkins, "the perverse and per- 
sistent confusion of children's undoubted ignorance of the 
world's ways with their alleged incapacity for thought and 
for serious feeling, is responsible for most of the mistakes 
we make in our dealings with them " (5, p. 395). The seri- 
ousness of the injustice lies in the fact that we allow or force 
the child to pass by innumerable opportunities to learn to 
reason by reasoning, or we fail to help him gain ideas, con- 
cepts, formulae for thinking, and motives for their thought- 
ful use. Worse still, we impose upon his ignorance and 
actually teach him to reason incorrectly about many cause- 
and-effect and other relationships in nature and in human 
life. 

Reasoning is no mysterious, lawless " faculty," given 
outright and to man alone, nor is it a capacity which bursts 
suddenly into full bloom at the dawn of adolescence. It is 
a highly complex set of mental processes by means of which 
the most difficult and most important new adjustments of 
man to his increasingly complex life are effected. It develops 
as other capacities do; its development is, indeed, depend- 
ent upon that of other functions of mind, — perception, 
association, memory, imagination, etc. Of the exact steps 
in this development, of the things which help and hinder 
it, of the means of its effective training we know, as yet, 
very little with certainty. 

We know that the capacity for logical reasoning in- 
creases with age. There are reasons for thinking that the 
development is rhythmical, as many others are, with a 
decided acceleration at puberty. Perhaps it follows the 
course of a typical learning curve. We know that the rea- 
soning of children is, as a rule, less direct, logical, orderly, 
less exact, less complete, less correct, and sometimes but 
not necessarily slower, than that of adults. On the other 



296 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

hand, there are exceptions, in special cases, to almost every 
one of these statements. We know that practical and con- 
crete reasoning and the use of analogy predominate over 
the use of abstract and logical formulae; that concepts are 
psychological more often than logical. Tendencies of growth 
are in the direction of greater completeness, definiteness, 
consistency, accuracy, and a better understanding of the 
processes involved. Experience and training bring acquaint- 
ance with the abstract symbols and forms of logical thought 
and practice in their use, but even so the individual differ- 
ences remaining between adults are quite as great as those 
between some children and some adults. Many grown 
persons never attain any great facility in the use of the 
higher logical processes except, perhaps, in some limited 
field. 

Clear thinking and right acting were never more seri- 
ously demanded than in the present world crisis. Exact 
determination of the ways in which children reason in the 
many practical situations of life which they meet in the 
course of their development is greatly needed. Such infor- 
mation should have many suggestions as to proper direc- 
tion of rational education. An effective education in ration- 
ality in all important phases of life would do more to 
advance the human race than any other one thing. Let us 
hope we shall soon have a serious attack upon this impor- 
tant problem, beginning with a thoroughgoing study of the 
reasoning processes of children. 

Conclusion. In this and the preceding chapters we have 
attempted to introduce the reader to certain important 
phases of child psychology. We have aimed to leave the 
impression that this new science is just at its beginning, 
and that, therefore, on almost every important point, par- 
ents, teachers, and friends of children must keep an open 
mind, and at the same time continue to look to scientific 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 297 

study of mental development for the solution of the prac- 
tical and educational problems of child training. The 
thoughtful student cannot but have reached the convic- 
tion that the extent and accuracy of our knowledge differs 
widely in different parts of the field, and for different groups 
of years. Many gaps in our knowledge are now well recog- 
nized, many fields of investigation have been recently en- 
tered with prospect of valuable discovery ahead. The 
studies thus far made are quite sufficient to establish many 
significant facts which have already very materially affected 
our dealings with children. We are aware, as never before, 
of the vast individual differences between children of dif- 
ferent ages and of the same age. We know far more than 
ever before of the quantitative nature of these differences. 
The studies thus far made are quite sufficient to establish 
similarly the differences between children and adults. It is 
clear that these differences are of degree rather than of hind, 
but they are none the less significant for that reason. 

The trend of experimental findings is to the effect that 
it is futile to attempt to mark off stages of mental develop- 
ment in terms of definite chronological ages, since intelli- 
gence tests have clearly shown that it is " mental age " 
which chiefly determines the stage in which any capacity 
is likely to be found in a given individual or group of indi- 
viduals. This, however, in no way minimizes the value of 
the proven fact that age differences in sense and percep- 
tive capacity, attention, apperception, memory, associa- 
tion, imagination, emotional disposition, aesthetic and ethi- 
cal appreciation, and reasoning are far too great to be 
ignored. 

The present task of child psychology, which calls in- 
sistently for the patient and painstaking work of an army 
of trained investigators, is, in the main, to reveal to us, 
with exactness and completeness, the nature of these dif- 



298 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

ferences; the correlations between them; the causes which 
underlie them; the effects they have upon the course of 
mental development; and the ways in which they are modi- 
fied by experience, training, and instruction. An exact 
science of education awaits nothing so much as an exact 
science of child psychology. This must be its foundation 
and corner stone. We are compelled to leave the complete 
discussion of many of the problems hinted at in this book, 
and in this chapter particularly, to others. If we have with 
any degree of success paved the way for such discussion our 
task is done. 

Summary 

1. The last two chapters have attempted, in the most 
fragmentary way, to introduce the student to the 
field of pure child psychology now so rapidly develop- 
ing, in the hope that we may stimulate an interest in 
its further progress. 

% Each mental capacity follows a course of develop- 
ment somewhat parallel to, but not always closely cor- 
related with, every other. Sense capacity, e.g., reaches 
maturity first; reasoning capacity develops more 
slowly, reaching maturity last and much later. When 
mental development is arrested the highest capaci- 
ties suffer most serious impairment. 

S. It should be constantly kept in mind that a child 
with serious sensory defects cannot sense keenly; that 
what has never been in sense experience can with dif- 
ficulty be appreciated, if at all; that true imagery can- 
not be had for what has never been perceived in 
actuality; that the content of mind increases vastly 
in quantity and quality with age and experience; that 
those parts of mental content are vaguest and most 
useless in which experience has been most limited. 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES 299 

4. It is rapidly being demonstrated that individuals are 
endowed by nature with certain fundamental capaci- 
ties which no amount of training can change to any 
appreciable extent, and that individuals differ vastly 
in their native endowment. Education may greatly 
improve the capacity to use native endowment; it can- 
not make good the defects of inheritance. 

5. It is of the utmost importance in education that ade- 
quate means of determining the specific capacities of 
every child, at an early stage, be perfected and used, 
so that education may proceed rationally to make the 
most of those capacities which each has inherited. 

6. There can be no denying that caution is needed in the 
application of the results of child psychology to edu- 
cation and to vocational guidance, and yet each year 
sees the approach of the day when both are to be 
placed upon a much surer footing than has been the 
case in any previous period of educational history. The 
principles of education and those of vocational guidance 
must both be derived from those of child psychology. 

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Explain in detail why a rich and varied sensory experience is impor- 
tant. 

£. Does rural life provide any better sensory-motor experience than city 
life? Why? 

3. In the light of our knowledge of sensory and motor development, what 
criticism have you of the Montessori method ? 

4. Explain the expression "attention is a function of the content" of 
mind. 

5. Under favorable conditions, recall the very earliest incident in your 
life that can now be brought to mind. Note your age at the time, 
the nature of the incident, the imagery involved, its clearness, your 
assurance that it is a true memory, etc. 

6. What becomes of the memories of infancy and early childhood? 
Why? 

7. Make careful introspective study of your own imagery, and compare 
your observations with those of other persons. 



300 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

8. Make careful observations of the expression of emotions in children 
of different ages. Note what emotions are prominent, and the char- 
acter, duration, intensity, etc., of their expression. 

9. What significance has the fact that the fundamental sense capacities, 
native retentiveness, etc., are only to a small degree, if at all, affected 
by training, age, or sex? 

10. What practical difference does it make whether we think of attention, 
memory, reason, etc., as "faculties" or as functions of mind? 

11. State some of the practical and educational bearings of the vast indi- 
vidual differences in imagery, in memory, in reasoning capacity, etc. 

12. Explain why the emotions often dominate conduct to a greater extent 
than reason. 

13. Study examples of reasoning in some child of your acquaintance for 
evidence that it is the same in kind as that of the adult. 

14. Select two or three children to whom you can give some exact tests 
of sense capacities, memory, association, reasoning, and the like. 
Compare the capacities of different individuals with each other and 
with yourself, and draw some tentative conclusions. 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. Barnes, E. Studies in Education. Vol. 1 (1896-97), 400 pp.; vol. 2 

(1902), 400 pp. 

2. Baldwin, J. M. Mental Development in the Child and the Race. (1906.) 

477 pp. 

3. Bonser, F. G. "The Reasoning Ability of Children"; in Teachers 

College Cont. to Educ. (1910.) No. 37, 134 pp. (Tests in fourth, 
fifth and sixth grades. Bibliography, pp. 113, 114.) 

4. Brown, H. W. "Some Records of the Thoughts and Reasonings of 

Children"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 2, pp. 358-96. 

5. Calkins, Mary W. An Introduction to Psychology. (1901.) 511pp. 

6. Chamberlain, A. F. The Child; A Study in the Evolution of Man, 

(1901.) 498 pp. 
*7. Claparede, E. Experimental Pedagogy and the Psychology of the Child, 
(1911.) 332 pp. 
8. Colvin, S. S., and Bagley, W. G. Human Behavior; A First Book in 

Psychology for Teachers. (1913.) 336 pp. 
*9. Cyclopedia of Education. Paul Monroe, editor. (1911-1913.) 
Look under the head of the various topics of the chapter. 
*10. Dearborn, G. V. Moto-sensory Development. (1910.) 215 pp. 

11. Dewey, J. How We Think. (1910.) 224 pp. 

12. Drummond, W. B. An Introduction to Child Study. (1907.) 348 pp. 

13. Ellison, Louise. "Children's Capacity for Abstract Thought as 

Shown by their Use of Language in Definition of Abstract Terms"; 
in Am. Jour, of Psy. t vol. 19, pp. 253-60. 



PARTICULAR CAPACITIES SOI 

14. Fisher, S. Carolyn. "Arithmetic and Reasoning in Children"; in 

Ped. Sem., vol. 19, pp. 48-77. (Bibliography. Resume of literature 
through 1911.) 

15. Gesell, A. L., and Gesell, Beatrice C. The Normal Child and Primary 

Education. (1912.) 342 pp. 

16. Gilbert, J. "Experiments on the Musical Sensitivity of Children"; 

in Yale Psy. Lab. Studies, vol. 1, pp. 80-87. 

17. Hall, G.S. Adolescence. (1904.) 2 vols., 589 pp. and 784 pp. 

18. Hall, G. S. Aspects of Child Life and Education. (1907.) 326 pp. 

19. Hall, G. S. "Note on Early Memories"; in Ped. Sem., vol. 6, pp. 

485-512. 

20. Hall, G. S. "Some Aspects of the Early Sense of Self"; in Am. Jour. 

of Psy.. vol. 9, pp. 351-95. 

21. James, Wm. Principles of Psychology. (1890.) 2 vols. 689 pp. and 

704 pp. 
*22. King, I. The Psychology of Child Development. (1903.) 265 pp. 
♦23. Kirkpatrick, E. A. Fundamentals of Child Study. (1903.) 384 pp. 

24. Kirkpatrick, E. A. Genetic Psychology. (1910.) 373 pp. 
*25. Kirkpatrick, E. A. The Individual in the Making. (1911.) 339 pp. 

26. Major, D. R. First Steps in Mental Growth. (1906.) 360 pp. 

27. McDougall, W. An Introduction to Social Psychology. (9th edition, 

1915.) 431 pp. 

28. Meumann, E. The Psychology of Learning. (1913.) 393 pp. 

29. Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method (1912), pp. 167-245. 

30. O'Shea, M. V. Social Development and Education. (1909.) 561 pp. 
*31. Parmelee, M. F. The Science of Human Behavior (1913), pp. 256-326. 
*32. Partridge, G. E. Genetic Philosophy of Education (1912), pp. 14-87. 

An epitome of G. Stanley Hall's writings, with a bibliography of them. 

S3. Partridge, G. E. Outline of Individual Study. (1910.) 240 pp. 

34. Preyer, W. The Mind of the Child. Part i: The Senses and the Will. 

(1888.) 346 pp. Part n: The Development of the Intellect. (1889.) 
317 pp. 

35. Preyer, W. Infant Mind. (1899.) 176 pp. 

36. Pyle, W. H. The Outlines of Educational Psychology. (1912.) 276 pp. 

37. Pyle, W. H. The Science of Human Nature. (1917.) 229 pp. 

*38. Rusk, R. R. Introduction to Experimental Education. (1912.) 303 pp. 
*39. Sandiford, P. The Mental and Physical Life of School Children. 
(1913.) 346 pp. 
40. Seashore, C. E. "The Measurement of Pitch Discrimination; A Pre- 
liminary Report"; in Psy. Monographs, vol. 13, pp. 21-60. 
*41. Shinn, Millicent W. Biography of a Baby. (1900.) 247 pp. 

42. Slaughter, J. W. The Adolescent. (1912.) 100 pp. 
*43. Tanner, Amy. The Child. (2d edition, 1915.) 533 pp. 
44. Thorndike, E. L. "Notes on Child Study"; in Col. Univ. Cont. to 
Phil. Psy. and Educ, vol. 8, nos. 3 and 4. (1901.) 157 pp. 



302 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 

45. Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology; Briefer Course. (1914.) 

442 pp. 

46. Thorndike, E. L. Animal Intelligence. (1911.) 297 pp. 

47. Titchener, E. B. A Textbook of Psychology. (1911.) 565 pp. 

*48. Tracy,F.,andStimpfl,J. The Psychology of Childhood. (1909.) 219 pp. 

49. Waddle, C. W., and Root, W. T. A Syllabus and Bibliography oj 

Child Study. (1915.) 98 pp. 

50. Watt, H. J. The Economy and Training of Memory. (1911.) 128 pp. 
*51. Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. Part i: 

Simpler Processes. (1914.) 365 pp. Part ii: Complex Processes, 
(1914.) 336 pp. 
52. Yerkes, R. M. Introduction to Psychology (1911), pp. 211-44. 

Note. Any standard textbook on general psychology may be 
consulted for description and analysis of the mental processes of 
the adult. 



SUGGESTIONS 

FOR A TEACHER'S PRIVATE LIBRARY IN CHILD 
PSYCHOLOGY AND RELATED TOPICS 

1. Chamberlain, A. F. The Child. Scribners. (1900.) 498 pp. (Exhaus- 

tive bibliography.) 

An epitome of child-study literature to 1903 by an anthropologist. 

2. Forbush, W. B. Child Study and Child Training. Scribners. (1915.) 

319 pp. 

A guide to child study and training for parents and teachers. 

3. Hall, G. S. Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene. Appleton. 

(1912.) 379 pp. 

A condensation of bis large work on adolescence. 

4. Hall, G. S., and others. Aspects of Child Life and Education. Ginn. 

(1907.) 326 pp. 

Some of the best studies typical of the early child study. 

5. Johnson, G. E. Education by Plays and Games. Ginn. (1907.) 234 pp. 

A practical handbook of games and plays suited to ea«h age. 

6. Kirkpatrick, E. A. The Individual in the Making. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. (1911.) 339 pp. 

A subjective view of child development with suggestions to parents. 

7. Mangold, G. B. Problems of Child Welfare. Macmillan. (1914.) 

522 pp. 

A comprehensive treatment of the most important child welfare problems. 

8. Monroe, W. S., De Voss, J. C, and Kelly, T. J. Educational Tests and 

Measurements. Houghton Mifflin Company. (1917.) 309 pp. 

Studies of the school work of children. 

9. Mumford, Edith M. The Dawn of Character. Longmans. (1914.) 

210 pp. 

A practical study of child life and training. 

10. Parmelee, M. The Science of Human Behavior. Macmillan. (1913.) 
443 pp. 

Biological and psychological foundations clearly presented. 



804, A TEACHER'S LIBRARY 

11. Partridge, G. E. A Genetic Philosophy of Education. Sturgis and 

Walton. (1912.) 401 pp. 

An epitome of G. Stanley Hall's views on child psychology in relation to edu- 
cation. 

12. Puffer, J. A. The Boy and his Gang. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

(1912.) 187 pp. 

An excellent presentation of the meaning, values, and dangers of the gang. 

13. Rusk, R. R. Introduction to Experimental Education. Longmans. 

(1912.) 303 pp. 

Applications of child psychology to educational practice, 

14. Shinn, M. W. The Biography of a Baby. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

(1900.) 247 pp. 

The developments of an infant during the first year. 

15. Terman, L. M. The Hygiene of the School Child. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. (1914.) 417 pp. 

A helpful discussion of growth, physical defects, and health care. 

16. Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. Houghton Mifflin 

Company. (1916.) 362 pp. 

The best discussion of the aims, values, and administration of intelligence 

tests. 

17. Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology. Teachers College. (1916.) 

442 pp. 

A biological psychology applied to education. 

18. Tracy, F., and Stimpfl, J. The Psychology of Childhood. Heath. 

(1909.) 219 pp. 

One of the best of the early books, 

19. Tyler, J. M. Growth and Education. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

(1907.) 294 pp. (Bibliographies.) 

A helpful and stimulating treatment of the growth problems involved in 
education. 

20. Watt, H. J. The Economy and Training of Memory. Longmans. 

(1909.) 128 pp. 

A very practical treatment of an important topic. 

21. Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. Warwick and 

York. Vol. I (1914), 365 pp., vol. II (1915), 336 pp. 

The best discussion of tests other than those of the Binet type. 



GLOSSARY 



acquired character, a physical or 
mental trait the cause of which is 
to be found in the life history of 
the organism rather than in 
heredity. 

adaptation, a process of adjustment 
to environmental changes. 

anthropology, the science of man. 

atavism, a reversion to the traits of 
earlier generations. 

behavior, the sum total of all the 
responses of an organism. 

biophor, a primary unit of the germ 
plasm or hereditary substance. 

catharsis, purgation, cleansing or 
ridding body or mind of certain 
traits or tendencies. 

chromosomes, minute, V-shaped, 
structural elements of the cell 
thought to be the bearers of hered- 
itary qualities. 

clinical method, a method of exam- 
ination or demonstration of a 
case in presence of a group. 

correlation, mutual or reciprocal 
relationship between two capaci- 
ties or functions. 

culture epoch theory, the pedagogi- 
cal correlate of the recapitulation 
theory; the theory that each child 
must traverse from the beginning 
all the stages of racial culture his- 
tory. 

delinquent, a child, under the age of 
legal responsibility, who violates 
any law. 



determinant, a secondary unit of 
germ plasm composed of biophors 
and regulating the origin of cells 
or groups of cells. 

dominant trait, one tending to be- 
come characteristic of the species. 

embryology, the science dealing with 
the development of the embryo. 

environment, the sum total of all 
conditions that actively influence 
the development of any organism 
from without. 

etiology, an inquiry into the effective 
causes of phenomena. 

eugenics, the science of improve- 
ment of the human race by appli- 
cation of the laws of heredity. 

euthenics, the science of improve- 
ment of the human race through 
controllable environment. 

evolution, in biology, the theory that 
all higher have originated from 
lower forms of life by a process of 
gradual adaptive change. 

feeble-minded, a general term ap- 
plied to all those whose mental 
development is seriously retarded 
or arrested at a level three or more 
years below that proper for their 
age. 

foetus, a term applied to the embryo 
after the second month. 

genetic, pertaining to the origin or 
beginnings of phenomena. 

germinal selection, a process of se- 
lective struggle for nutriment 



306 



GLOSSARY 



within the germ cell, postulated 
by Weismann as the basis of in- 
born variations, 
germ plasm, that part of the cell- 
protoplasm by means of which life 
is passed on from parent to off- 
spring; the hereditary substance. 

heredity, the tendency of an organ- 
ism to develop likeness to its pro- 
genitors. 

id, a theoretical component of germ 
plasm composed of determinants 
and supposed to give origin to 
definite parts of an organism. 

idiot, the lowest class of feeble- 
minded whose mentality never 
exceeds the three-year level. 

imbecile, the feeble-minded of mid- 
dle grade whose intelligence never 
exceeds that of the normal seven- 
year-old child. 

Inborn, a capacity, character, or 
trait whose sufficient cause is in- 
herent in the germ plasm. 

innate, implanted by nature; inborn. 

instinct, see pp. 100 ff. 

intelligence, the capacity to make 
improved adaptations to environ- 
ment by the intervention of men- 
tal processes. 

limen, the point at which a sensory 
stimulus, or the difference be- 
tween two stimuli, is just recog- 
nizable; the sensory or discrimi- 
nation threshold. 

mean, the statistical or arithmetical 

average, 
median, the middle or representative 

value in a statistical series. 
Mendelism, the theory of Mendel 

(p. 76). 



mental age, that measured by the 
level of intelligence as distinct 
from real or chronological age. 

mitosis, the process of cell division 
and multiplication. 

mode, the commonest or most fre- 
quent value in a statistical series. 

moron, the highest type of feeble- 
minded, representing mental ages 
of from seven to twelve years. 

mutant, an individual organism un- 
dergoing the process of mutation. 

mutation, a process of sudden occur- 
rence of a large, discontinuous 
variation which is hereditary from 
the first. 

nascent, beginning to exist or de- 
velop. 

natural selection, a process of selec- 
tion in which the laws of nature 
are the selective agents. 

neuron, the nerve cell with its at- 
tached fiber considered as a struc- 
tural unit. 

neurosis, a change in nerve tissue. 

onomatopoeia, the principle by 
which words are formed in imita- 
tion of natural sounds. 

ontogeny, the history of the evolu- 
tion of the individual organism. 

ovum, the germ cell of the female. 

paleontology, the study of the sci- 
ence of antiquities. 

parallelism, in psychology, the theory 
that mental processes accompany 
neural processes. 

paresis, partial paralysis affecting 
movement but not sensation. 

phylogeny, the history of the evolu- 
tion of a species. 

plateau, a stage in learning in which 
progress is temporarily checked; 



GLOSSARY 



307 



a part of a curve of learning which 
approaches the level. 

prenatal, embryonic; that which 
precedes birth. 

psycho-analysis, a method of treat- 
ment of functional mental disor- 
ders. 

psychosis, a mental process or 
change. 

questionnaire, a group of related 
questions on a single topic. 

recapitulation theory, the theory 
that the physical and mental de- 
velopment of an individual repeats 
in approximately the same order 
the stages in the evolution of the 
species. 



recessive trait, one tending to dis- 
appear from the species, 
recidivist, a repeated offender. 

spermatozoon, the germ cell of the 
male. 

syphilis, a specific, infectious, vene- 
real disease. 

teleology, the theory that all things 
come into existence for definite 
ends. 

telepathy, the supposed (?) sympa- 
thetic affection of one mind by 
another without direct communi- 
cation by the senses. 

tropism, a simple mechanical or 
chemo-physical response of am 
organism to stimulation. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



Abstract concepts, increase of, 286; 
formed with difficulty, 294 ff. 

Accuracy, of sense-perception, 280; 
of reasoning, 294 ff. 

Acquired characters, inheritance of, 
79 ff. 

Acquisitiveness, 99, 216 ff. 

Activity, motor, of children, innate 
physical, 115; innate mental, 118; 
linguistic, of one day, 173; in rela- 
tion to mental development, 258. 

Adaptation, process of, 55. 

Adenoids, 242. 

Adolescence, the emotions of, 109; 
the play of, 140 ff.; speech tenden- 
cies at, 162 ff.; aesthetic interests 
at, 195; moral development at, 
215; prominence of delinquent 
tendencies at, 243 ff., 247. 

Adults, and children compared, 109, 
139; imitation of, in child play, 
147. 

Esthetic sensitivity, beginnings of, 
186; in primitive men, 187 ff.; 
increase of, at adolescence, 195; 
an aim in art education, 205. 

Affection, as a feeling element, 290. 

Age, effect of, on plays, 134 ff. 

Alcohol, effects of, on the embryo, 
69; effects of, on heredity, 81. 

Amoeba, 58. 

Amusements, 123, 140. 

Anger, 98, 108 ff. 

Animals, classes of, 57; similarity of 
embryonic stages in, 64 ff.; nerv- 
ous system of, 97; instincts of, 
and those of man, 105; play of, 
129; speech of, 153 ff. 

Anthropological studies of children, 
6ff. 

Approbation, 211. 

Arrest of development, in relation 
to delinquency, 228 ff., 245, 247. 



Art. See Drawing. 
Association, the process of, 283 ff. 
Atavism, 281 ff. 
Automatic movements, 98. 

Babbling, prelinguistic, 160. 

Baby-talk, detrimental, 162, 180. 

Bad, the child not, by nature, 209 ff.; 
ideas of good and, 214 ff.; 235 ff. 

Bailey and Babette Gatzert Founda- 
tion, 26. 

Ball, plays with, 135. 

Baseball, psychological basis of in» 
terest in, 133. 

Behavior, problems of, 94; chemo- 
physical basis of, 95; structural 
basis of, 95; evolution of, 96; hu- 
man, 97 ff . ; types of, in the child, 
216; relation of mind to, 258 ff., 
266 ff. 

Bibliographies. See ends of chapters. 

Binet-Simon tests, 42, 232 ff. 

Biographies, baby, 17. 

Biographical method, 31. 

Body, and mind, 71, 94, 258. 

Boys, play interests of, 135 ff.; speech 
of, 175; art work of, 200 ff.; delin- 
quencies of, 246 ff. 

Boy Scouts, 249. 

Bullying, and teasing, 222. 

Camp-Fire Girls, 249. 

Cannibalism, 7-8. 

Cell, the theory of, 57; fertilization 
of, 60 ff.; parent, 61; division of, 
62. 

Child, the: new evaluation of, 1 ff.; 
in folk- thought, 4; in history, 6 ff. 

Child, The Conference for Research 
and Welfare, 24. 

Child psychology, the task of, 297 ff. 

Child study, significance of, 1; lit- 
erature of, 17 ff.; Hall, the "Fa- 



310 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



ther" of, 15; Rousseau and, 15; 
basis of education, 16; history of, 
17 ff. ; societies for, 18 ff . ; the move- 
ment for, 18; in foreign countries, 
21 ff . ; journals on, 22; accomplish- 
ments of, 45. 

Child- Welfare, Society for, in Eng- 
land, 11 ff.; the beginnings of, 23; 
exhibits, 25; commissions on, 25. 

Children, mutilation and abuse of, 
9, 11 ff.; slavery of, 10 ff.; and the 
school, 13 ff.; methods of study- 
ing, 30 ff.; contents of the minds 
of, 32 ff. ; in the light of evolution, 
51 ff.; the instincts of, 94 ff.; the 
play of, 123 ff.; the linguistic de- 
velopment of, 153; the drawings of, 
185; the moral nature of, 209 ff.; 
the delinquencies of, 226 ff.; the 
general mental development of, 
255 ff. 

Children's Bureau, the, establish- 
ment of, 25; work of, in study of 
infancy, 27, 68. 

Children's drawings, 185 ff. 

Children's Institute, 24. 

Chromosome theory, 57. 

Chromosomes, number of, 60; divi- 
sion of, 61 ff. 

Clinics, psychological, 24, 26. 

Clinical method, 34. 

Clubs, 140, 249. 

Color, interest in, 201. 

Collecting, 216. 

Companionship, 119, 138. 

Competition, in play, 138 ff. 

Consciousness, beginnings of, 259 ff.; 
prenatal, 261; in the new-born, 
263; descriptions of infant, 263 ff.; 
functions of, 266 ff. 

Constructiveness, and destructive- 
ness, 19, 117; in play, 138; in art, 
185, 201, 203. 

Correlation, of curiosity and intelli- 
gence, 117; of motor with other 
capacities, 202 ff.; of attention 
with intelligence, 282. 

Cries, as origin of speech, 155, 158, 
159. 

Cruelty, to children, 6 ff . ; of children, 
218, 222. 



Culture epoch theory, 67, 273. 
Curiosity, and truancy, 116 ff.; and 

morality, 218. 
Customs, and morality, 210 ff. 

Darwin, the problem of , 52 ff.; the 
gemmule theory of, 75; and ac- 
quired characters, 79; theory 
applied to mind, 256. 

Defects, mental and speech, 175 ff.; 
physical, and delinquency, 242; 
mental, and delinquency, 237 ff. 

Definitions, by children, 170 ff. 

Delinquency, juvenile, 226 ff.; inher- 
itance of, 86 ff.; definition of, 226; 
causes of, 227 ff.; heredity and, 
228 ff., 237; instinct and, 231 ff.; 
feeble-mindedness and, 237 ff.; 
the home and, 237; child labor and, 
237 ff.; idleness and, 239; the 
gang and, 240 ff.; responsibility 
of society for, 241 ff.; physical 
defects and, 242; age and, 243 ff.; 
nature of, 245 ff.; remedies for, 
248 ff. 

Delinquent, the typical, 247-48. 

Depravity, the doctrine of natural, 
210; of delinquent denied, 227, 
230. 

Descartes, the principle of, 45 ff. 

Descent, the theory of, 52; evidences 
of, 53. 

Development, arrest of, 228 ff.; 
247. 

Discrimination, capacity for, 279. 

Doll play, 139, 141. 

Dramatic play, 128, 138, 148. 

Drawing, children's, 185 ff.; instinc- 
tive basis of, 185-86; and writing, 
188; studies of, 189 ff.; genetic 
stages in, 190 ff.; scribbling, 190- 
92 ; artistic illusion, 192-94; self- 
conscious period, 194; rebirth of 
ability, 195; subjects drawn, 195 
ff.; a form of linguistic expression, 
196-97; of man, 196 ff.; charac- 
teristics of, 197 ff.; line vs. mass, 
198; symbolism of, 198; and 
thought, 200; sex differences in, 
200 ff.; individual differences in, 
202 ff.; course of study in, 202- 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



311 



03; values of, 203 ff.; cathartic 
effect of, 204; aims of teaching, 
204-05; summary, 205-06. 

Economy, doctrine of, 45. 

Edwards-Tuttle family, 86. 

Emboitement theory, 56. 

Embryo, development of, 65. 

Emotions, and instincts, 108 ff.; evo- 
lution of, 289 ff.; of children and 
adults contrasted, 290 ff.; expres- 
sion of, 291. 

Entoderm, and its derivatives, 64. 

Environment, vs. heredity, 81, 228; 
effect of, on speech, 172; as cause 
of delinquency, 237 ff. 

Eugenics, 237, 249. 

Evolution, principle of, 51 ; evidences 
for, 53; factors in, 54 ff. 

Experimental method, 47. 

Expression, instinctive, 97 ff.; vari- 
ety of, in play, 137 ff.; in speech, 
158 ff.; in drawing, 193 ff. 

Fear, 98. 

Feeble- mindedness, and speech, 174 
ff.; and ability in drawing, 203; 
and delinquency, 232 ff.; effect 
of, on accountability, 235. 

Fittest, survival of, 54. 

Foetus, 66. 

Galton's laws, 78 ff . 

Games, absence of, in infancy, 137; 

culmination of interest in, at 

adolescence, 139 ff. ; prominence of 

certain types of, 142. 
Gang, the, 240 ff . 
Genetic view of play, 130; stages in 

speech, 158 ff.; in drawing, 190 ff.; 

view of moral nature, 209 ff.; 

account of mind, 255 ff . 
Germ cells, relation to the soma, 74, 

77. 
Germ plasm, continuity of, 74 ff.; 

isolation of, 81. 
Gianini, Jean, the case of, 234. 
Girls, play interests of , 135; compared 

with those of boys, 141 ff.; speech 

development of, compared with 

that of boys, 175; drawings of, 



compared with those of boys, 301 

ff . ; delinquencies of, 246. 
Good and bad in child nature, 209 

ff. 
Gregariousness, 119; and speech, 

158; and bad habits, 223. 
Group, in play, 139 ff. 
Growth, the principle of, in mental 

development, 271. 

Habit, relation of, to instincts, 98 ff., 
113. 

Handwriting, and drawing, 188. 

Health, and play, 148. 

Heredity, 71 ff.; prenatal influences 
on, 67; individual, 71; racial, 71; 
definition of, 72; inevitableness 
of, 73; theories of, 74 ff.; recapit- 
ulation and, 78; scientific studies 
of, 82 ff.; Wood's views on, 83 ff.; 
Galton's views on, 84; Thorndike's 
studies of twins, 85; Cattell's 
studies of, 85 ff.; Healy on, 86; 
social, 88 ff.; shown in instincts, 
94 ff.; and the forms of play, 130 
ff . ; and speech, 157-58; and art ex- 
pression, 186 ff.; and morality, 212; 
and delinquency, 228 ff.; mental 
capacity and, 232, 260 ff . 

Home, the defective and delin- 
quency, 237. 

Human behavior, classes of, 97. 

Human sacrifices, 8-9. 

Ideals, children's, 33. 
Ideo-plasm, theory of, 56. 
Imagery, types of, 287; individual 

differences in, 287. 
Imagination, development of, 288; 

tests of, 288. 
Imitation, in play, 138 ff .; in learning 

to speak, 157, 160; of copy in 

drawing, 191; and morality, 222. 
Immorality, typical offense of girls, 

246. 
Individual differences, in drawing, 

202 ff.; in mental development, 

275; in imagery, 287. 
Infancy, studies of, 31; meaning of, 

107; plays in, 137; speech in, 159; 

drawing in, 190; the moral nature 



312 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



in, 214; consciousness in, 263 ff.; 
memory in, 285; imagination in, 
288. 

Infant mortality, 68. 

Infanticide, 6-7. 

Inheritance. See Heredity. 

Innate ideas, 260. 

Insanity, 237. 

Instincts, illustrated, 99 ff.; nature 
of, 100 ff.; denned, 101; stimuli of, 
102 ff.; human, characterized, 103 
ff.; complexity of human, 106; 
inadequacy of human, 107; emo- 
tions and, 108 ff.; classification of, 
110 ff.; pedagogical significance 
of, 108, 112 ff.; treatment of, 113 
ff.; some useful, 115 ff.; general 
physical activity, 115; curiosity, 
116; general mental activity, 118; 
social, 119; in relation to play, 
126, 128, 136, 139, 148; in relation 
to speech, 158 ff . ; in relation to art 
expression, 185 ff.; and morality, 
209 ff.; and delinquency, 231 ff.; 
and mental origins, 257 ff. 

Intelligence tests, purposes of, 42; 
values of, 43 ff. 

Interest, and curiosity, 116 ff.; in 
plays, 133 ff.; in drawing, 186, 
195 ff. 

Interpretation, cautions in scientific, 
44 ff. 

Journals, devoted to child study, 22. 
Jukes family, 87. 
Juvenile courts, 23, 249. 

Kallikak families, 87 ff. 

Language. See Speech. 

Learning, stages in, of speech, 159 ff.: 

of drawing 190 ff.; laws of, 275 ff. 
Lies, children's, 220. 
Limen, the stimulus and difference 

in children, 279 ff. 

Man, drawings of, by children, 198 ff. 

Mean, the, 39. 

Median, the, 40. 

Memories, early, 285 ff. 

Memory, development of capacity 



of, 284 ff.; character of, in infant, 
285. 

Mendelism, 76. 

Mental development, through play, 
145 ff.; through speech, 174; re- 
vealed in drawing, 200; by means 
of drawing, 203 ff.; periods of, 
269 ff . ; general principles of, 271 ff . ; 
orderliness of, 271 ff.; recapitula- 
tion in, 272 ff.; periodicity in, 273; 
continuity in, 274: self -activity 
the sole means of, 274; individual 
differences in, 275. 

Mesoderm, and its derivatives, 64. 

Methods, scientific, characterized, 
31; value of, 30, 48; kinds of, 30; 
biographical, 31; direct question, 
32; clinical, 34; questionnaire, 35; 
statistical, 38 ff.; parallel groups, 
41 ff . ; intelligence tests, 42 ff. ; in- 
trospective, observational, psycho- 
analysis, association, and labora- 
tory, 47; difficulty of, 47 ff.; im- 
provements in, 48. 

Meumann's principle, 46. 

Mind, contents of, in children, 32 ff.; 
and body, 119, 258; general de- 
velopment of, 255 ff.; problems 
of, 255; nature of, 256; origin of, 
257; and movement, 258 ff.; partly 
predetermined, 260; unitary na- 
ture of, 267 ff. 

Mitosis, process of, 62 ff. 

Mode, the, 40. 

Moral nature, of children, 209 ff.; 
point of view, 209 ff.; and in- 
stincts, 209, 211, 213, 231 ff.; 
evolution of, 210, 221; social na- 
ture of, 211; heredity and, 212; 
stages in development of, 214 ff.; 
in infancy, 214; in early childhood, 
214; in later childhood, 215; at 
adolescence, 215; in later adoles- 
cence, 216; effect of changed views 
of, 226 ff.; feeble-mindedness and, 
233 ff.; intelligence and, 235 ff. 

Motor activity of children, 137, 139. 

Movements, genesis of, 95 ff., 100 ff.; 
instinctive basis of, 115; involved 
in speech, 156 ff.; interest in, 191; 
and origin of mind, 257 ff. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



313 



Nascent periods, of instincts, 104; 

intellectual, 118. 
Neuron, the, and behavior, 96 ff. 

Obstinacy, 220 ff. 

Ontogeny, 51, 58. 

Origins, racial, of play, 130 ff.; of 
speech, 154 ff.; of art, 186 ff. 

Ovum, appearance of, 59; size of, 
60; development of, after fertiliza- 
tion, 60 ff. 

Ownership, the sense of, 216 ff. 

Oxnam, Charles, the case of, 235. 

Pangenesis theory, 56. 

Parallel groups, method of, 41 ff. 

Parent cell, the, 61. 

Parts, and organs, development of, 64. 

Perceptions, first appearance of, in 

behavior, 265. 
Periodicity, of instincts, 106. 
Phylogeny, study of, 51 ff. 
Plasticity, of infancy, 105. 
Plateau, a stage in learning of 

speech, 160; of drawing, 194. 
Play, 123 ff.; compared with work, 

123; defined, 123 ff.; theories of, 

125 ff.; Schiller-Spencer theory of, 

126 ff.; Groos theory of, 127 ff.; 
instinctive basis of, 126, 128, 136, 
139, 148; the recapitulation the- 
ory of, 130 ff.; the relaxation 
theory of, 131 ff.; the varieties of, 
133 ff.; effect of age on, 134 ff.; 
in infancy, 137; in early childhood, 
137 ff.; in later childhood, 138 ff.; 
in adolescence, 140 ff.; socializa- 
tion through, 140; sex differences 
in, 140 ff.; racial elements in, 144 
ff.; values of, 145; dramatization 
and imitation in, 147; linguistic, 
160; impulse and delinquency, 
231 ff., 239 ff.; as remedy for de- 
linquency, 249. 

Predatory activities, 241. 
Prenatal influences, 67 ff. 
Primitive, in play, 139 ff.; in art, 

186 ff.; in morality, 217, 229 ff. 
Psycho-analysis, 212. 
Psychologist's fallacy, 45. 
Psychosis, 256. 



Question, the method of the direct, 

32 ff. 
Questionnaire, defense of, 27 ff.; the 

method, 35 ff.; criticism of, 35 ff.; 

typical topics studied by, 38. 

Racial traits, in play, 127 ff.; in 
language, 144; in drawing, 186 ff.; 
in mental origins, 256 ff. 

Reasoning, development of, in chil- 
dren, 293 ff. 

Recapitulation, physical, 64 ff.; 
heredity and, 78; instincts and, 
104 ff.; in play, 130 ff.; in drawing, 
186 ff.; in mental development, 
260, 272 ff . 

Reflexes, illustrated and defined, 
98 ff.; organic, 98. 

Reproduction, process of, 58 ff. 

Research, laboratories, 26; Buckel 
Foundation, 26; in the University 
of Iowa, 26. 

Responsibility, changes in, with age, 
214 ff.; and will training, 220 ff.; 
lack of, in children, 227, 245; in 
feeble-minded, 235 ff. 

School, and the child, 13 ff. 

Scientific ability, heredity of, 85 ff. 

Scientific study of children. See 
Methods. 

Scribbling, 190 ff. 

Selection, germinal, 75 ff.; natural, 
53, 55. 

Self-activity, the sole means of de- 
velopment, 274. 

Sense-perception, development of, 
279 ff. 

Senses, the beginning of the func- 
tioning of, 261 ff.; order of devel- 
opment of, 262. 

Sentence, the use of the, by children, 
166, 172 ff. 

Sex differences, in play, 141 ff.; in 
speech, 175; in drawing, 200 ff.; 
in delinquency, 246. 

Slang, 162 ff. 

Slavery, of children, 10 ff . 

Social, instinct, 119; element in play, 
142 ff.; in speech, 158, 171 ff.; na- 
ture of morality, 211 ff., 217; re- 



314 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



sponsibility for delinquency, 241; 

remedies for delinquency, 248 ff. 

Socialization, through play, 140, 

- 147 . ff ' 

Societies, for study of children, 18 ff . 

Species, origin of, 54. 

Speech, defined, 153; in animals, 
153 ff.; importance of, 154; origin 
of, 154; ontogeny of, 156 ff.; phys- 
iological basis of, 156; heredity 
and, 157; stages in development 
of, 159 ff.; extent of use of, 173; 
and intelligence, 174 ff.; develop- 
ment of, in the feeble-minded, 174 
ff., 177 ff.; summary, 179 ff. 

Spermatozoon, 59. 

Statistical, method, 38 ff.; terms, 
39 ff.; studies in heredity, 81 ff.; 
studies in play, 133 ff.; studies of 
vocabularies, 163 ff.; studies of 
feeble-mindedness, 233 ff.; studies 
of the causes of delinquency, 
237 ff. 

Talent, early development of, in 

art, 202. 
Teasing and bullying, 222. 
Teleology, argument from, 46. 



Telepathy, 69. 

Theft, natural result of develop- 
ment of desire for ownership, 216 
ff.; in primitive times, 230; typical 
offense of boys, 246. 

Tropisms, 95. 

Truancy, 218 ff.; instinctive basis 
of, 219; cathartic effect of, 219. 

Twins, Thorndike's study of hered- 
ity in, 85. 

Variation, theories of, 74. 
Vocabularies, studies of children's, 

163 ff.; tests of, 176 ff. 
Vocational guidance, 240, 249. 

Welfare of children. See Child- 
welfare. 

Words, a child's first, 158; average 
number of, in a child's vocabulary, 
166; the use of, for sentences, 166; 
definitions of, by children, 170; 
the content of, 171 ff.; number of, 
in sentences used by children, 173; 
number used per day, 173 ff.; num- 
ber used by the feeble-minded, 
176; tests, 177. 

Work, compared with play, 123 ff. i 



INDEX OF NAMES 



ibbott, Miss E., 237, 246. 
Addams, Miss Jane, 231 ff., 239. 
Aristotle, 5, 146. 

Baer, von, K. E., 66. 

Baldwin, J. M., 191, 281. 

Barnes, E., 20, 22, 33, 170, 171, 178, 

192, 193, 196, 197, 198, 288. 
Barnett, Mrs. M. G„ 231. 
Bell, S., 174. 

Binet, A., 42, 170, 178, 179, 232, 233. 
Bohannon, E. W„ 148, 221. 
Bonger, W. A., 11 ff., 230, 238, 

242. 
Bonnet, C, 56. 
Boyd, W., 169. 

Brandenburg, G. C, 168, 173, 174. 
Breckenridge, Miss S. P., 237, 246. 
Bridgman, Laura, 277. . 
Brinton, D. C, 3, 124. 
Brown, E. E., 189, 197. 
Burk, Mrs. C. F., 216. 
Burk, F., 222. 
Burnham, W. H., 202, 204. • 

Calkins, Miss M. W., 295. 

Carr, H. A., 145, 146, 148. 

Castle, W. E„ 72. 

Cattell, J. McK., 85. 

Chamberlain, A. F., 2, 4, 12, 154, 

155, 170, 186, 193, 194, 205. 
Chambers, W. G., 35, 125, 171. 
Chase, J. H., 133. 
Chrisman, O., 161. 
Claparede, E., 18, 35. 
Clopper, E. N., 237. 
Comenius, J. A., 16. 
Confucius, 5. 



Conklin, E. G., 71, 73, 81. 

Conradi, E., 162. 

Crabbe, G., 14. 

Croswell, T. R., 134, 135, 142, 144. 

Curtis, Miss E. W., 147. 

Darrah, Miss E. M., 217 ff. 
Darwin, Charles, 52 ff., 75, 76, 77, 

79, 83, 256. 
Davenport, C. B., 80, 86, 95, 219. 
Dawson, G. E., 229. 
Dearborn, G. V., 17, 31, 261. 
Derver, J., 172, 177. 
Descartes, R., 46. 
De Vries, H., 77. 
Dewey, J., 123, 147, 270. 
Dickens, Charles, 11, 14. 
Doran, E. W., 163. 
Drew, A., 239. 
Drummond, W. B., 31, 65. 

Ebbinghaus, H., 289. 
Ellis, A. C, 135. 
Ellis, H., 4. 
Ellison, A. C, 178. 

Fiske, John, 107. 
Flanders, Miss C, 196, 197. 
France, C. J., 216. 
Freud, S., 212. 
Froebel, F., 15. 

Gale, M. C. and H., 174. 

Galton, F., 56 f 78, 83, 84. 

Garafalo, R., 228. 

Garner, R. L., 156. 

Gault, R. H., 35. 

Gesell, A. L. and Mrs. B. C, 18. 



316 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Goddard, H. H., 76, 86, 87, 88, 232, 

233, 235 ff. 
Goldmark, Miss J., 240. 
Goring, C, 242. 
Grant, J. R., 163. 
Gross, K., 127-30, 143, 147. 
Gulick, L., 144. 

Haeckel, E., 66. 

Hale, H., 162. 

Hall, G. Stanley, 3, 4, 18 ff., 22, 24, 
32, 35, 37, 51, 67, 84, 102, 109, 
117, 118, 123, 124, 129, 130, 131, 
135, 143, 147, 171, 186, 190, 201, 

, 202, 203, 205, 218, 220, 246, 256, 
268, 285, 290 ff. 

Hammurabi, 9. 

Hart, H. H., 23. 

Healy, W., 68, 86, 228, 242 ff. 

Henri, V., 155. 

Herbart, J. F., 15, 67. 

Hogan, Mrs. L. E., 189. 

Holmes, A., 111. 

Ivanoff, E., 203. 

James, W., 112, 113, 263, 284. 

Jastrow, J., 201. 

Jesus, 3, 5. 

Johnson, G. E., 123, 124, 133, 136 ff. 

Johnson, J., 217. 

Jordan, D. S.„ 189. 

Judd, C. H., 154. 

"Jukes, Max," 87. 

Jung, C. G., 212. 

Katzeroff, D., 201. 
Keller, Helen, 277. 
Kerschensteiner, G., 189, 200, 201, 

202, 205. 
Kidd, D., 2. 
Kik, C, 203. 
King, I., 265 ff., 269. 
Kirkpatrick, E. A., Ill, 168. 
Kline, L. W., 216, 219. 



Krohn, W. O., 19. 
Kussmaul, A., 17. 

Lacassagne, 241. 
Lamarck, de, J. B., 52, 79. 
Lay, W. A., 201, 202. 
Lee, J., 139. 
Lefevre, A., 155. 
Levinstein, S., 186, 201. , 
Lindsey, B. B., 241. 
Lobisch, 17. 
Locke, John, 15. 
Loeb, J., 101. 

Lombroso, C, 227, 228, 229. 
Lukens, H. T., 166, 167, 172, 189, 190, 
191, 193, 194, 196, 197, 199, 204. 

Major, D. R., 137, 172, 189, 190, 191, 

261, 285. 
Mark, T., 110. 
Marro, A., 244. 
McDougall, W., 101, 102, 108, 116* 

292 ff. 
McGhee, Z., 142, 143. 
McMurry, C. A., 19. 
Mead, C. D., 174, 175. 
Melville, A. H., 162. 
Mendel, J. G., 76. 
Meumann, E., 46, 284. 
Monroe, W. S., 40. 
Montessori, Maria, 282. 
Moore, Mrs. K., 168, 169, 173. 
Morgan, C. L., 45. 
Morrison, W. D., 227, 232, 240. 
Miiller, F., 66. 

Nagali, C. von, 5Q. 
Nearing, S., 238. 
Nice, Mrs. M. M., 172. 

Ogden, R. M., 178. 
Oppenheim, N., 243. 

Parker, F. W., 19. 

Parmelee, M., 34, 118, 123, 124, 267. 



INDEX OF NAMES 



317 



Partridge, G. E., 197, 223, 273, 290. 
Patrick, G. T. W., 124, 129, 131, 132, 

133, 143, 145, 239. 
Payne, G. H., 2, 6 ff. 
Pelsma, J. R., 159, 163, 164. 
Pestalozzi, J. H., 15, 17. 
Plato, 5, 15, 149. 
Ploss, Dr., 2. 
Powell, J. W., 106. 
Prentiss, C. W., 63 ff. 
Preyer, W., 17, 31, 32, 145, 261. 
Puffer, J. A., 219, 240, 241. 

Ricci, C, 189. 
Riis, J., 231, 240. 
Roosevelt, T. R., 24. 
Root, W. T., x. 
Rousseau, J. J., 15. 
Rugg, H. O., 40. 
Rusk, R. R., 40, 284. 
Russell, E. H., 18. 

Sandiford, P., 83. 

Schiller, F., 126. 

Schleiden, M. J., 57. 

Schoff, Mrs. H. K., 218, 237. 

Schuyten, M. C, 197, 201. 

Schwann, Th., 57. 

Seashore, C, 26, 280. 

Sechrist, F. K., 162. 

Shaw, J. C, 170, 178. 

Sheldon, H. D., 244. 

Shinn, Miss M. W., 17, 31, 32, 158, 

159, 189, 191, 192, 261, 264. 
Sigismund, B., 17. 



Simon, Th., 42. 

Sisson, Miss G., 138. 

Smedley, F. W., 287. 

Smith, Miss T. L., 35, 117, 118, 218, 

220. 
Snyder, Miss A. D., 173. 
Spencer, H., 126. 
Sully, J., 166, 190, 197, 221. 
Swift, E. J., 14, 229. 

Tanner, Miss Amy E., 197, 262. 
Tarde, G., 241. 
Terman, L. M., 44, 235. 
Thorndike, E. L., 35, 36, 85, 118 3 

123, 263 ff., 275, 293 ff. 
Tiedemann, D., 17. 
Titchener, E. B., 40, 289. 
Town, Miss C. H., 175 ff. 
Tracy, F., 156, 157, 190. 
Travis, T., 227, 229, 237. 
Tyler, J. M., 65. 

Van Liew, C. C, 19. 

Walker, C. E., 56. 
Walter, H. E., 56. 
Weismann, A., 74, 75, 79, 81. 
West, Mrs. M., 69. 
Whipple, G. M., 40, 177. 
Winch, W. H., 41. 
Witmer, L., 34. 
Wolff, Miss F. E., 168. 
Woods, F. A., 83 ff., 232. 

Ziehen, Th., 284. 



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